Annie Sings The Blues
by PoisonLipz
Summary: It was the perfect plan. I would live, grow old, and die. No one would find out. But I was foolish. I should have known that life doesn't always end up how we planned it. Most of the time, it just screws you over. Yeah, that sounds like my life for sure.
1. TGI Forget It

_**It's official. Thanks to my Best Friend, I am obsessed with this show. Absolutely love it.**_

TGIF is a simple acronym that a large percentage of the world is familiar with. 'Thank God It's Friday' is what it means. It happens to be a lot of people's favorite compilation of words. It is such a relief when you could speak those words at the end of a dreary work week. It meant that you had the whole weekend to look forward to. You could get as wasted as possible and not have a care in the world. That is, until Monday came back and reared its ugly head. But that wasn't important at the moment. The important thing was that you could let loose and do whatever you wished to do.

A vampire bar was not what I considered as 'letting loose.'

I wasn't exactly sure why I had agreed to let my friends take me out to the most popular vampire bar in Louisiana: Fangtasia. Upon hearing the name, I couldn't help but chuckle at the dry humor they used for the title. But all jokes aside, I was somewhat nervous to go inside the club. Ever since the Great Revelation, the vampires had come out of hiding and did exposed themselves to the outside world. Even though they were exposed, it didn't mean that everyone was on board with the idea of cohabitating with them. It also didn't mean that they were all for cohabitating with _us_. Now, the idea of being inside Fangtasia unnerved me a smidge because I have never been in a place that was filled with this many vampires before. I wasn't sure what to expect once I got inside, but I was already agitated from waiting nearly thirty minutes on line.

"You know, you could put a smile on your face," Matt whispered in my ear. I glanced at him and smiled a bit, directing my attention back to the entrance of the club. Matt was one of my best friends. We didn't know each other our whole lives or anything, but once we met a few years ago, we became the best of friends. I could talk to him about anything, and we had the utmost respect for each other.

"I'm fine. Just a little irritated. I mean, it wasn't my plan to come, but I'm anxious to see what's inside. This waiting is killing me."

"Oh calm down. We're almost at the front of the line," Mariah, one of our friends said excitedly. Actually, she was more of an acquaintance to me. The only reason she was a part of our little outing was because one of my other guy friends, Shawn, has had a crush on her for a couple of weeks now. If you asked me, I would tell him to find someone else. He was way too good for her. But he didn't listen to me. He still tried to do whatever he could to please her and make her happy, even though she was too blind to see just how much he cared for her. She was actually the one who suggested that the five of them come and check out Fangtasia and, of course, not wanting to disappoint her, Shawn insisted that we see what the hype was about, if only for a little while.

"I don't think that this is a good idea. I mean, these guys are ruthless. They could kill us in a second," Amber, the more rational person of the group mused. She was actually one of my good friends. She was headstrong, persistent, and a bit ignorant when she could be. I blame it on her parents. I had the pleasure of meeting her _fine_ parentals, and they were the most backwoods people I had ever met in my entire life. It was a truly sad thing.

"Fine Amber. Leave. Go home and on your way there, get jumped by a vampire. If you ask me, we're safer in this club than anywhere on the streets right now," Mariah replied.

"Would you stop? Jeez. Look, I'm not planning on staying in there the entire night. I'm probably getting a drink or two, and then I'm out. The best bet we have at staying safe is staying low and not drawing any unwanted attention to ourselves," I ordered.

"Got that right. My idea of a good time doesn't include becoming some dead girl-or guy's- dinner for the night," Shawn, the last member of our group commented. Everyone agreed as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"_Well, aren't you all cute?"_

"_Not as cute as you. What's your name?"_

"_Not interested. At all. Let me see your IDs."_

"Get out your ID guys. The bouncer at the door is gonna want to see it," I said as I opened my purse and pulled out my driver's license from my wallet.

"How do you know that?" Matt asked as they all followed suit.

"I heard her ask someone else just now," I stated calmly

"Oh my gosh. I am so excited. Am I the only one who's excited?" Mariah asked.

"Yes, you crazy psycho. Calm the hell down," Shawn laughed.

"I can't calm down. We're going into a vampire bar. I mean it's totally crazy and a little bit stupid unless you have a death wish, but it's so exciting and…. Oh I can't wait!" she squealed.

"So how was your day?" Matt asked me, temporary blocking out the excited shrieks that were coming from Mariah.

"It was good. A little less hectic than usual, which is unusual," I chuckled.

"That's good. Have anything planned out for the weekend?"

"Well," I began, stretching my arms over my head, "Chris is coming to stay with me for a while, so I'll have to pick him up from the airport tomorrow. Then I'm gonna spend the rest of the weekend showing him around the place, help him get a job and settle in," I sighed.

"Always the hard worker, aren't you?" he grinned.

"I have to be. If I don't keep myself occupied, I get anxious and nervous."

Before we knew it, we were all standing at the front entrance of the club. The bouncer, instead of being a big, bulky man that we all assumed it would be, was actually a woman. A vampire. She looked fairly young, with dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and she was dressed in a tight red leather corset with black leather pants and black patent high heels. She eyed each of us up and down before she spoke.

"Well, aren't you all cute?" she said with a smirk.

"Not as cute as you. What's your name?" Shawn asked, and we all looked at him as if he were crazy. _'God. Leave it to Shawn to flirt with the first vampire he meets.'_

"Not interested. At all. Let me see your IDs," she said, and I couldn't help but smirk at her response. Each of us showed her our ID and waited for her to look over each of our ages. She stopped at my driver's license and looked up to meet my face. "My my… aren't you a fine piece of foreign beauty," she purred, looking me up and down.

Now, I wasn't sure what to do in a situation like this. I could already tell that she was a vampire, and the last thing I wanted to do was get on a vampire's bad side, let alone upset the first one I met. So I simply smiled and thanked her for the compliment.

"I do hope you come out in one piece, honey. The vampires in there won't be able to take their eyes off of you. I know I won't. Go ahead," she said as she ushered the five of us inside. We all replaced our IDs before letting out a small breath, unaware that we were holding it in the first place.

"That was… kind of odd," Shawn commented.

"Extremely…" I replied as we all took in the sight that stood before us.

To say that the club was pretty cliché was an understatement. The walls were decorated red and black with gothic style pictures and portraits covering the walls. Matching red and black tables, stools and couches were set up all over the place. The music was chaotic and loud. The lights were dim and dreary. Stripper poles were scattered around the room, currently being used by female vampires. It was amazing how the entire room just screamed of blood and sex. The people were probably the most surprising element. Almost everyone who was a human was dressed up in costumes. They wore clothing that no normal person would wear outside in the daylight. Dark and mostly leather clad outfits were all that could be seen. It was as if the humans wanted to create an illusion that they were the actual vampires. It made me question their sanity for a second.

"Well, so much for not attracting attention. We're the only normal looking people in this place!" Shawn exclaimed.

"Please Shawn, just a bit louder. I don't think the vampires in the back heard you clear enough," I said calmly.

"Oh! It's everything I ever thought it was and so much better!"

"Seriously, someone's gonna have to keep tabs on this bitch, cause at this rate, she ain't gonna make it home in one piece. Who's taking responsibility?" Shawn asked, pulling Mariah back before she had time to escape into the crowd.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Amber volunteered. Looking over at her, I couldn't help but smile at the way she was clutching onto her purse_. 'I certainly hope she doesn't really believe that the vampires were interested in her purse. That's the last thing that they're going to want from any of us,' _I thought to myself.

"And who's going to take the very important task of the designated driver tonight?"

"I'll do it. I mean, it's my van, anyway," I willingly volunteered.

"No, it's okay. You always do it. I'll drive," Matt offered, and I smiled in return. I loved the fact that no matter what the situation was, Matt always had my back

"Great. That's settled. Let's go!" Mariah said as she practically ran into the crowd. Amber grabbed onto her, which led her to grab onto Shawn, which was followed by him pulling Matt. I silently watched as the four of them got lost in the crowd.

'_I love my friends,'_ I thought with a smirk as I made my way to the bar. Looking over the area, I made sure to grab a seat where there wasn't too many people around. The last thing I wanted that night was unwanted attention from a vampire.

The man who was working behind the bar was a Native American looking guy. He had long black hair that hung down the sides of his face. He looked a bit older than my age, but in reality he was probably way older than my age. He looked up when he realized that I had taken a seat, and slowly made his way towards me.

"What can I get you?"

"Can I get a black Russian on the rocks with a shot of tequila, please."

"Easy there. Those are some strong drinks little girl," he warned, but began mixing them nonetheless.

"It's okay. I have a pretty strong stomach for liquor," I replied. He nodded and went to prepare my drink. I watched as his hands moved at an inhumane speed, and my earlier thoughts were confirmed. He was a vampire as well.

"So… what do I call you?" I asked, trying to make conversation. I could feel the many eyes peering into my back, and I tried my best to ignore it. I definitely didn't feel like turning around to face them.

"Longshadow."

"Huh. It's Native American, is it not?"

"It is. I'm surprised that you actually have knowledge about that. Most of the fools who come in here think that it's a stage name," he smirked.

"Well, I had a friend back in school whose last name was Whitehorn, and she was an Alaskan Native American. That's probably the only reason why I know."

"Interesting. So… do you have a name as well?"

"It's Anastasia. But everyone calls me Anna."

"Hmm. Well Anna, you seem to be causing quite the stir here tonight," he commented, motioning behind me with his eyes. I slowly turned around and came face to face with seven different vampires staring me down, male and female alike. It didn't scare me, but it did make me more cautious and alert than I was before. It instantly put me on edge.

"Black Russian and tequila. Enjoy," Longshadow said as he placed the drinks in front of me as I turned back around to face the bar. I chugged the tequila first, savoring the taste and enjoying the warmth that it sent through my body. I sighed afterwards and grabbed my other drink, slowly sipping it through the straw. I bravely turned to look through the crowd for my friends, ignoring the stares that were still being sent my way.

I watched as Matt and Shawn conversed in one corner while they both enjoyed a drink. Amber was sitting next to them, but wasn't paying attention to the conversation at all. She was staring at something else. It didn't take long for me to see what she was looking at. I watched as Mariah danced rather provocatively with two male vampires. So far, it looked rather harmless to me (well, as harmless as grinding on two vampires could look), so I didn't pay much mind to it. I turned back around and made casual conversation with Longshadow, finding him very easy to talk to.

"_Damn, that was an easy catch. She was all over us. She was practically begging us to taste her."_

"_I could tell she was gonna be easy once she walked in. Too bad her friend wasn't as willing."_

"_Forget that other one. I wanted a taste of that other bitch. She smelled delicious."_

"Hey, you still with me?"

I glanced up at Longshadow, who was in the middle wiping a glass while he stared intently at my face.

"Yeah… no. I just remembered something, actually. I have to leave now," I replied as I grabbed my purse that was resting on the counter and swung it over my shoulder, "but it was nice talking to you, yeah?" I nodded and smiled before turning around to seek out my friends. I found the guys and Erin at the bar, exactly where I saw them last.

"Hey guys, can we leave?"

"What? Why? We just got here," Shawn complained.

"I just feel like something bad is going to happen. Can we please go? We can go to some other bar. Preferably one that isn't full of vampires. As a matter of fact, you guys could go. I have to get home anyway."

"Yeah, sure. We can go. Where's Mariah?" Matt asked.

"Over there with those vampires," Amber spat as she pointed to a dark corner of the club. I turned around and watched as Mariah occupied one of the vampires' lap, talking rather intently to them. Without hesitating, I began to make my way over to the trio. I heard Matt and Amber calling her name, but I didn't bother turning around to answer their calls.

"Mariah," I said, making her presence known to the three of them. The two vampires eyed her up and down slowly, and she subconsciously wrapped her leather jacket tighter around her body. "It's time for us to go."

"What? Come on! We just got here," she giggled.

"Yeah, she just got here. She can't leave yet. We haven't even gotten a chance to know her better," one of the vampires grinned. I glanced at him and resisted the urge to roll my eyes before looking back at Mariah.

"Mariah, get your ass up or I'm gonna tell your brother that your down here throwing yourself all over these vampires. And you know he'll haul ass and be down here in a second," she threatened.

"Okay fine! Jesus, do you have to be such a party pooper," she grumbled as she snatched her purse and made her way towards the others. I smirked before walking back towards the rest of the group, not even bothering to look back at the two male vampires.

"Okay, are we all ready?"

"Yeah sure. Whatever. Let's just go," Mariah sneered.

"Seriously, could you cut the bullshit? I mean, how old are you anyway? You could have gotten yourself killed," Amber scolded. Mariah said nothing as she sucked her teeth and walked towards the exit. I rolled my eyes at her childish behavior and began walking out of the bar. Before my feet even made it outside, I was stopped by the bouncer, who placed an arm in front of my path.

"Not so fast," she said as she stepped in front of me.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"What is it? What's the problem?" Amber asked

"I can't allow you to leave just yet."

"Why not?" both Matt and I asked in unison.

"It seems as though you've been summoned."

"Summoned? By who?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Well, by Eric, of course," she replied as if it was obvious. Seeing that I still had no idea who she was talking about, she rolled her eyes and gestured to the stage that was in the back of the club. Now that I got a good look at it, I was surprised that I hadn't seen it or noticed it at all before.

She looked over the stage that held a large throne that was accompanied by two smaller seats on each side of it. Sitting on the throne was a man, a vampire to be exact. I watched as he stared at me rather intently, then slowly raise his hand, and beckoning me over with a single motion.

"Ummm… if he calls me over like that, do I have to go?"

"It would be wise," the bouncer answered immediately.

"Well tell him she took a rain check," Matt said before wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling us both out of the bar. When we got far enough, I shrugged his arm off. I was thankful for his help, but I could have handled it by myself.

"Huh. Do you think that was wise? Running out like that? I mean, they might get upset," Shawn asked as we all approached the car.

"Better we make a run for it than have to deal with a vampire," Amber said as I opened my bag and began to fish for my keys.

"Uh, I don't see what's the big deal about vampires. They're people just like us," Mariah commented.

"Okay, maybe that's true, but not all of them will be willing to make friends with us. We're humans. We're their food source. Most of them just want to suck us dry," Amber replied. I wasn't paying much mind to the conversation. I was still busy looking for my keys. I bent down and began carefully placing all the materials in my satchel on the sidewalk. Everyone paused to look at me as they realized that I had emptied out all the contents of my purse on the sidewalk.

"What's wrong?"

"My car keys. I can't… find them…" I said as I searched my pockets as well. I huffed before a thought crossed my mind. "Maybe it fell out on the bar…"

"We have to go back in there?" Amber asked.

"Well I have to get my keys. Unless you guys plan on walking back to Monroe."

"I'll go back with you," Matt volunteered.

"Me too," Mariah said immediately.

"Fine. Whatever. Let's just make this quick, please," I said, already walking back to the entrance. Thankful that the bouncer was no longer guarding the door, the three of us quickly walked back to the bar, where Longshadow was still working.

"Back already?" he smirked as he prepared a drink for another person.

"Yeah… did you see a set of car keys over here. I think I might have dropped them."

"Nope. Nothing over here."

"Are you sure? Because this was the only other place I could have-"

"I've seen them," someone said from behind, and we all turned around to come face to face with the bouncer.

"Really? Where are they?" Mariah asked.

"Up there, with him," she said pointing to the stage again. I looked over and saw the vampire who was on the throne dangling _my_ car keys between his fingers. "I told you it would be wise to go to see him," she shrugged, placing a hand on her hip

I looked back at Matt and Mariah before letting out a sigh. "I have to go and get them."

"Are you crazy?" Matt asked.

"Wait. So I can't hang out with vampires, but you can?"

"Oh my Jesus. Seriously, shut the fuck up!" I shouted over the music, which caused Pam to smirk. Mariah crossed her arms and let out a huff. I didn't say anything else, but instead, began walking towards the stage where the vampire was with my keys. Before I could get there, however, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to face a very worried looking Matt.

"At least make me go with you," Matt offered, but the bouncer intervened immediately.

"He said to leave the human," she said, looking over Matt in what I could only assume was disgust.

"Look. The both of you just go outside and wait for me by the car. I'll be in out in no time." I saw that Matt was prepared to disagree, but I stopped him before he could. "Just trust me."

Matt looked at her for a while before glancing at the stage, sending the vampire a cold stare. I watched as he hesitantly pulled Mariah and himself out of the club. Letting out a sigh, I quickly made my way to the vampire. I walked up the platform and made my way to the throne. When I got there, I stood in front of him, crossing my arms defiantly. I watched as his icy blue eyes traveled down my form, and I took this time to observe him as well. He had blonde hair that reached his shoulders and from what I could tell, he was quite tall. He wore a black leather jacket over a back button down shirt, which was accompanied by black pants. When he was done with his inspecting, his eyes looked up and met mine. I couldn't help but get a bit upset at the small smirk that was on his lips.

"Well, I'm glad that I was able to grab your attention somehow," he spoke first, his voice low, but powerful.

"Give me my car keys," I said, not beating around the bush.

"Well, feisty aren't we?" he smirked. "Please. Have a seat."

"I'm not interested in making conversation with you. I just want to leave."

"Well the longer you wait to do as I say, the longer you'll be here," he said in a very annoying matter-of-factly tone.

I swallowed hard before exhaling trough my nose and slowly taking the seat on his right. I gritted my teeth, willing myself to stay calm.

"Now… Pam tells me that your name is Anastasia Coletti… quite an exotic name if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you," I replied. _'Jeez Anna, calm down. You don't want to make him angry,' _I scolded myself.

"I'd lose the attitude if you want your keys back," he said, leaning back in his throne seat. I sighed and sat back in my seat.

"Now… the reason why I called you over… is because you seemed to have caused a stir among my patrons tonight."

"What? You want me to apologize? I don't even know why," I replied.

"It's because of your blood. It's extremely intoxicating. In addition to the exotic, foreignness of it, there's also the distinct smell of… purity. It's the most appealing blood to a vampire," he said, looking me over again.

"So what? They're all drawn to me just because I'm foreign and a virgin? I still don't see what that has to do with-"

"There's something else. Something different about your blood. It's different from the other human's blood, but I'm unsure why. I'm quite determined to find out what it is…" he trailed off.

"Umm… ok."

He averted his gaze from me and looked over towards the door. "It would seem that your friend is getting rather anxious," he smirked. I looked over and saw Matt still standing by the entrance, arms crossed and a stern look on his face. "Do you belong to him?"

"I don't belong to anyone," I answered quickly.

"Huh. I guess I'm lucky, seeing as how you seem to be completely available."

"I have no intention in starting any kind of relationship with you, Mister-"

"Eric Northman," he smirked, filling in the blank for me. I shrugged my shoulders, as if to tell him that I really don't care what his name is.

"Well Miss Coletti," he began, standing up, "I seem to have everything I need… for now, of course." he began handing me back my keys, and before I could snatch it from his hand, he tightened his grip on it. "Now now, I know you could be nicer than that."

I sighed, taking it gently from his hand. Not wanting to spend any more time there, I turned away from him and began to head towards the exit.

"I certainly look forward to seeing you again, Anastasia," I heard him say from behind. I turned around to reply.

"Trust me, I have no intention of returning here."

In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me. My eyes went wide, realizing for the first time just how big he was. He towered over me as he looked down into my eyes. I subconsciously backed up a few feet, but he moved forward so that we were still toe-to-toe

"Trust _me_, you'll be back before you know it," he retorted,, and evil smile making its way on his lips. I furrowed my brows before backing away and turning towards the exit. I released a breath that I didn't even know I was holding and made my way over to Matt.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," I said, handing him the keys. "Your still driving, right?"

"Yeah," he said as he led me outside. I cast a final glance inside and saw Eric settling back down in his seat, eyes still glued on me. We quickly walked over to my car and I got in the passengers seat while Matt got in the driver's seat.

"What did he want with you?" Shawn asked as we began pulling out the parking lot.

"Not sure. There wasn't really anything significant said between us," I lied.

"You are so lucky. I would kill to be that close to Eric Northman," Mariah sighed, clearly no longer mad at me for my outburst from before.

"Wait… how do you know him?" I asked.

"How do you not know him? Not only is he-"

"Okay, forget it. I don't care. I just want to go home. I have stuff to do in the morning," I sighed.

"You sure you're okay?" Matt asked me quietly.

"I'm fine," I said forcing on a smile.

Now, I wasn't at all scared of vampires. I wasn't scared of anything. What did scare me, however, was the certainty behind his eyes when he said that I would be back. I had absolutely no intention- scratch that, no reason to possibly go back and talk to him. No… he was wrong.

No matter what he said, I am not going back there. Ever.

_**Rate. Message. Alert. Tell me if I'm stupid for starting this when I already have 2 other unfinished stories.**_

_**PoisonLipz**_


	2. Who Do I Have To Kill?

_**Thank you Alicia w Krainie Czarow & KeBzO, who were the only ones who reviewed the last chapter. Much love to you guys!**_

_**BTW: This is, and will be, an Eric/OC story. Okay, on to the new chapter.**_

I walked trough the living room as I ran a towel through my wet hair. Plopping down on the couch, I turned up the TV and listened to the evening news. There really wasn't much to listen to. Ever since vampires came out, mostly everything that was on the news was about vampire rights and vampire equality. That was all anyone cared about anymore.

I placed the towel on the couch and assessed my now damp hair, deciding that I'd just let it air dry on its own. Leaning back on the couch, I grabbed the mail on the coffee table and looked through them all, coming across bills and magazines.

"It seems as though many people will have to rethink passing the Vampire Rights Bill in light of the murder of a young woman who was murdered in Monroe by what police can safely say, was a vampire."

I averted my gaze from the mail for a second and glanced at the TV. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me as I looked at the picture of the girl that was murdered. Dark hair. Bright eyes. A happy smile on her face.

My face.

According to the news, I was the one that was dead.

"24 year old Anastasia Coletti was on her way home late last night when she was viciously attacked by a vampire in the area and left for dead. Her friends say that they were on their way back from a fun night out, which quickly took a turn for the worst…"

I stopped listening, tossing my mail aside and running upstairs to my bedroom, grabbing my cell and calling the first person I could think of.

"Hello?"

"Matt? Matt, what the fuck is going on? Why is it saying that I'm dead on the news? They're saying that I was attacked by a-"

"Hello? Hello?"

"Matt? Can you hear me?" I asked, my voice now raised in panic.

"Is anyone there?" he began questioning, annoyed.

"Matt, it's Anna. What's-" I began, but was cut off when he hung op on me. I stared at my phone for a moment, in shock and disbelief. I wasn't dead. I mean, I was right here, for Pete's sake! It had to have been a mix up or a mistake… right?

I shook myself out of my trance before scrolling down and looking for another number. I stopped mid search as I heard something loud crash from downstairs. I stopped moving as I waited and listened for any footsteps or other signs of movement. I jumped when I heard something else crash from what sounded like inside of the kitchen. I carefully tiptoed outside and into the hallway, looking over and seeing if I could make anything out from downstairs. I had to shake my head a bit to try and block out the sound of my heart pounding furiously in my chest. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a shadow pass by the dining room.

I ran back in my room and looked for something I could use as a weapon. A few moments passed before I decided on the vase that was perched on my chest of drawer. After emptying out its contents on the floor, I placed my right hand inside and held it close to my chest as I began slowly descending the stairwell. I could still hear the TV on, and that irked me a bit, seeing as how now I couldn't hear if someone snuck up on me from behind.

I kept my back against the side of the stairs as I slowly made my way inside the kitchen. I slowly peered my head inside, finding it completely empty. I did, however, find the source of the crash. One of the large dishes that I used on special occasions had been knocked down to the ground from where it was perched high on one of the shelves of my cabinets.

I was about to walk fully into the kitchen when I heard a quick shuffle from behind. I spun around quickly, but saw nothing. I walked towards where I heard the sound and looked down each hallway, trying to decide on what to do. Clearly, someone was in my house, but I wasn't sure if this was a prank or someone was trying to hurt me.

Turning back around to the kitchen, I stopped immediately when I saw a figure standing a few yards away from me, underneath the space between the kitchen and the dining room. When he took a step forward, I had already taken about three steps back. I turned around and tried running, but fell on my backside when I bumped into something hard. It took me a while to register that the vase that was around my arm had broken, and was now successfully jabbing jagged edges into my hand.

Looking up, I saw another person standing in front of me. I couldn't make out their face in the dark, but I was sure that he wasn't supposed to be there. Scrambling to my feet, I ran through the living room and to the entrance of the house. I pulled the door open and made a run outside, trying to get as far away from my house as possible so that I could find some help.

That plan, however, was thwarted as I was pulled back by a strong pair of arms. I felt my back collide with a firm chest and I saw a flash of blond hair in front of my face. Before I could even understand what was happening, a handful of my hair was held tightly in someone's grip and my head was pulled viciously to the side. I felt a warm breath on my neck in an instant, and a malicious voice chuckled in my ear.

"I told you I would see you again," the vaguely familiar voice chuckled before sinking their fangs into my neck. All I could do was stand there and let out a blood curdling scream as the vampire drained my body dry.

~.~.~.~

I jumped up out of my bed, panting heavily. I placed a hand over my chest in an attempt to calm my erratic heart. I took me a second to realize that my cell had been vibrating this entire time. I quickly reached over to my nightstand and grabbed it, pressing the talk button before placing it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, what's up. Were you asleep?"

"Yeah, but I'm up now," I sighed, sliding out from under the covers and standing up. I walked over to the drapes and pulled them hard, allowing sunlight to shine through.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."

"No, no. I am so very glad that you did. Trust me," I said as I headed towards the bathroom.

"Bad dream?"

"Sure was. Anywho, Where are you now? Are you on the plane yet?"

"Sure am. I'm using the phone on the plane. They said that we couldn't use our cell phones on the plane anymore."

"Don't you need a credit card for those?"

"Yeah."

"Any you have a credit card?" I asked as I turned on the warm water for my shower.

"Of course. I've been working for a while, and I made about $3,500. I opened a Chase account as soon as I could."

"Well that's good to hear," I smiled. "I'm gonna go get ready, but I am looking forward to seeing you in the next four hours or so."

"Of course. Well go do what you gotta do. I don't want you stinking up the whole airport when you get here," he laughed.

"Whatever. Talk to you later," I grinned.

"Ok, see ya."

"Bye Chris," I said before hearing him hand up the phone. I clicked my own phone off and walked back inside the room to place it on my nightstand. I let out a sigh, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. After I reopened them, the memory of the dream had come back. Before waling back to the bathroom, I did a quick overlook of the house, checking every nook and cranny, making sure that there were no unwanted visitors inside. I let out a relieved sigh as I walked back up to my bathroom, thankful that everything I had experienced was only a dream.

~.~.~.~

About three hours later, I was parked outside Monroe Regional Airport, leaning on the side of my car, waiting patiently for Chris to walk through the airport doors. The sun was beating down on me, and I was glad that I had chosen a light and simple outfit to wear: a dark purple tank top, dark blue skinny jeans and black flats.

I almost jumped with excitement when I heard my phone buzz in my pocket. I quickly took it out and checked the caller ID before pressing talk.

"You outside yet?"

"Calm down, would you? I'm about to get my luggage," Chris laughed in the phone.

"Why can't I just come inside and get you? That seems a better idea to me."

"No! I want to see if I still remember how my big sis looks," he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

"I sent you a recent picture a couple of months ago. Come on, you're killing me right now," I whined.

"Damn, you just can't live without me, can you?" I heard him say next. The only difference was that instead of hearing it from my receiver, I heard it right behind me. I turned around to face him, ecstatic when I finally did.

I looked him over for a bit, seeing how much he had changed from the last time I saw him. He was a lot taller that when I last saw him. He was about the same height as me now: 5'10. His dark hair had grown out a bit, so it hung a bit around his head and framed his face very nicely. The only thing that hadn't changed about him was his signature grin, which was currently plastered on his face.

I didn't give him any time to speak before I had him in trapped in my bear hug/death grip. It didn't take long for him to respond, and his hands had released the bags that he was carrying and had immediately found their way around me. It felt like we were standing there forever, enjoying the fact that we were together again, but it turned out to be only a few minutes.

"So… I guess this means you missed me?" He joked, and I released him, slapping his arm in the process.

"Do you even have to ask? How was the flight? Was everything okay?"

"Everything was perfect. Thanks for booking me in first class, by the way," he smiled.

"Please. That was nothing. I'm just glad you're finally here. Come on, let me put your bags in the trunk," I said as I reached for one of his duffel bags. He followed suit and grabbed his larger suitcase and the second duffel that he had.

"A Lexus? Damn, Annie, didn't now you were doing that well for yourself," he joked as we placed his bags in the back.

"Of course. I didn't work this hard to let myself settle for less. Or worse, go back to _them_ and ask them for help," I replied as I shut the back of the car.

"Trust me, I know you way better than that. You would rather stay on the streets, begging for money and food before you came back and asked for help. You should blame it on your pride," he said as we both got into the car, me taking the drivers seat.

"You do know me too well," I smiled as I started the engine. "Okay, so where do you want to go? You wanna go home first or do you wanna get something to eat?"

"Do they have a mall around here? I have to buy some stuff. Then some food would be great," he groaned, and I let out a laugh as we drove away from the airport.

~.~.~.~

After about three hours of driving around and spending time in various stores, Chris had successfully bought some new clothes and basic toiletries and knick knacks. Now, we were driving around, looking for somewhere to eat.

"Why is there such a little bit of restaurants around?"

"Certain parts of Louisiana are really desolate. We drove pretty far from Monroe, which happens to be a bigger city than what's around it," I explained as we drove down the roads, looking for a good place to eat.

"Let's stop there at… what's it called…. Merlotte's."

"I don't know that place. What if they have really shitty food? I mean, Monroe is only like 45 minutes away-"

"I'm going to die of starvation by the time we get there!" he groaned.

"Oh my God! You know what? I hope the food sucks, you big baby," I smiled as I pulled into a parking spot. I shut off the car and grabbed my keys and purse before exiting the car with Chris. Now that we were in front of the place, I could see the entire building, including the sign that read 'Merlotte's Bar And Grill.' Chris held the door open for me as we walked inside, observing the place.

Looking at the place, it reminded me a lot of places like Applebee's and T.G.I. Fridays. There were booths and tables where people could enjoy a meal, and there was the bar where people would go to if they just needed a drink. There was a jukebox located in the back of the restaurant and the walls were covered with a whole bunch of different pictures and other memorabilia. The whole atmosphere was very inviting.

Chris and I went to a booth in the back and picked up one of the menus, searching for something to eat. I glanced away from my menu and took a look around the place. There wasn't too much people in here yet, seeing as how it was just the early afternoon. However, the people who were inside didn't hesitate to stare directly at our table, as if we were aliens or some other weird species.

"Did we step in something when we walked in?" I whispered to Chris.

"What are you…" he began, but caught on to what I was talking about. "Why are they all staring at us like that?"

"You're asking me?" I replied. We tried to ignore them and focused on our menu, trying to decide on what we were gonna eat.

"Hey there," I heard a voice say and we looked up to see who it had come from. A man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties stood there in a blue plaid button down and jeans. His hair was relatively long, framing his face nicely. He had a bit of a scruffy beard on, and he had a nice shade of blue eyes. All in all, he was a pretty handsome guy.

"Sorry about all the staring. The folks aren't really used to seeing new faces in here. They don't really have much manners either," he said, saying the last part a bit loudly, causing everyone who had been staring to avert their gaze. I couldn't help the smile that made its way on my lips.

"Anyhow, what can I get you guys?" he asked.

"Can I get a cheeseburger with fries, and a coke?" Chris said first. I watched as he scribbled it down on his pad before looking at me.

"What about you?"

"Umm… same thing he's having, except, instead of a coke, can I get a Sprite," I replied, grabbing Chris's menu and handing both of ours to the waiter.

"Sure thing," he said as he took the menus from me. I caught the crooked smile he gave me before walking towards where the kitchen was and handing the ticket with our orders to the chef.

"Huh. Look at you getting all smiley with the waiter," Chris said as he checked his cell phone.

"Shut up. It was just a smile," I laughed, playfully slapping his arm. He laughed and put his phone away before sitting upright in his seat, looking serious.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah. What is it?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"So… I did some research… and I wanted to know if it's true that… Louisiana is like the vampire capital of America?"

I widened my eyes as he asked the question, and even more at his enthusiasm about the subject. My mind immediately went back to last night and to the dream I had. The last thing I wanted, and needed, right now was him to becoming one of the crazy people who obsessed over vampires.

"Umm," I let out a short laugh, "I don't know if it's the vampire capital of the US, but I do know that a lot of them live in Louisiana."

"Really? God, weren't you shocked and amazed when they finally revealed themselves to the world? I mean, I wasn't too surprised, because where else would they get all those really good vampire stories like 'Dracula' and 'Nosferatu' from?"

"Yeah, well, don't get too excited. And don't plan on interacting with any of them."

"Why not? Have you met one before?"

"I…" I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him. It might just entice him even more, but I didn't want to hide anything from him either. "I have… unfortunately."

"Why? What happened? Did it bite you?" he asked frantically, quickly changing from interested and excited to defensive and protective.

"Calm down. He did not bite me."

"How did you meet him?"

"Last night, some of my friends decided it would be cool of we go to this vampire bar. I didn't think too much of it, so I was just like 'Sure, fine, whatever.' Turns out that my blood is very enticing to all of them, and-"

"They could smell your blood?" he asked, once again captivated by the surreal beings.

"Very well, actually. Anyway, they smelled my blood and apparently it smells really different and much more enticing than everyone else's."

"Do you think it's because of-"

"Probably," I said quietly.

"Do you think they know?"

"Only one of them. Well… I don't think he knows, but he probably has an idea that something's up with me. The bad thing is that I kind of saw something when I was in there, and he probably saw me blank out for a second and now he's suspicious. "

"Well, you're not gonna go back, so you got nothing to worry about," he reassured me.

"I'm definitely not planning on going back." I replied, not bothering to bring up the dream. I pulled out my cell and checked to see if I had any missed calls. I saw one from my friend, Deandra, but decided to call her after we ate.

"Oh right, forgot to ask. Should I be expecting any _special _guy friends when we get home?"

"Sadly, no," I smirked.

"Really? What about Will? I liked him, and he seemed like a good guy."

"Key word being seemed. I saw that he was going to cheat on me two months before it happened. And he was a little bit of a shit head to begin with anyway."

"Damn. Seeing things before they happen must be an advantage, huh?" he chuckled.

"Yeah, if you want to call it that," I laughed. We both looked over when we saw our food coming over. The same guy from before carefully placed the trays in front of us, followed by our drinks.

"Here you go. Hope it's to your liking. Just holler if you need anything else," he said, once again sending a small smile my way. I couldn't help but watch him as he walked away, which earned me a sly smirk from Chris. We ate our food, talking about various things. We ended up staying long after we finished eating, catching up and talking about the past. It wasn't until I noticed that half the day was gone before we decided to leave. I pulled out $50, leaving a $15 tip.

We both went to use the bathroom before we left. I did my business and checked myself in the mirror before walking out. As soon as I turned to hear towards the exit, I came extremely close to bumping into the someone. Looking up, I saw that it was the same guy that served Chris and myself. My hands had grabbed his arms to keep from bumping into him while his hands had held onto my waist. We both stared at each other for a minute before letting out a small laugh.

"Sorry about that," he smiled, removing his hands from my waist.

"No, it's fine," I smiled, looking down as I pulled some of my hair behind my ears. I looked back up and was about to walk around him, but he moved in the same direction, so we were still in front of each other. I let out a laugh, and he moved to the side, clearing the aisle for me to walk down.

"Thanks," I said quietly as I walked towards the exit. As I opened the door, I glanced back and found him at the same place I left him, except he was looking in my direction with a small smile on his lips.

I walked to my car, a small smile still plastered on my face. I stopped when heard my phone buzz from inside my bag. I pulled it out and pressed the talk button before placing it to my ear.

"Hola?"

"Oh my fucking God. Do you know what Davis did?" Deandra asked, sounding furious.

"Oh my Jesus. Who do I have to kill?" I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"The dumb ass went to talk to Patricia Walters this morning, and I just got a call from Jesse, and he said that we lost the case!"

"What do you mean we lost the case? I-I've been working on that case for the past month! We cannot lose that case! We've worked too hard!"

"Look, I know that this is your weekend with Chris, but we really need you to come and talk with her. You're the only one who will get her to change her mind.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, exhaling through my nose. "I'll be there in an hour."

"Alright. I'm gonna try and do damage control until you get here."

"Okay. See you," I sighed before shutting the phone closed. As soon as I walked to the driver's side, Chris came running through the door of the restaurant, excited.

"Oh my gosh. Annie, guess what just happened?" he grinned as he got in the car.

"A meteor came and stroke Davis?"

"What? No! Who the hell is Davis?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No one. What happened?" I asked as I pulled out of the lot.

"Well, I was coming out of the bathroom, and I ran into the guy who served us our food. Turns out, he's the owner of the place. He said that they were looking for a new busboy, and he gave me the job! How amazing is that? I'm in this town for less than a day, and I already have a job!"

"That is really great news! The place is really nice too. You said the server is the owner?"

"Yeah. His name is Sam Merlotte."

"Huh. Well, when do you start working?"

"I come in for training on Monday."

"Alrighty then. This is great. This saves a lot of time, which I'm going to need now."

"Why?"

"I have to head to my office. There was a problem and now I have to fix it. I'm going to drop you home and just stay there and get acquainted with the place until I get back, okay?"

"Sure, sure. I mean I don't know anybody else, so there's not really much I can do."

I nodded, focusing on the road the rest of the way to Monroe. It was a pretty calm and relaxing drive. That was, however, until I blacked out for about three minutes. If it wasn't for Chris yelling watch out, I would have rammed straight into a motorcyclist.

"Oh dear God. Does that always happen?" he questioned as I parked into my driveway.

"Not really. That was actually kind of irritating cause, I didn't even see anything important. I just saw my friend and her boyfriend having dinner."

"You can't control it?" he asked as we got out of the car and took his bags out of the back of the car.

"Most of the time I can, but sometimes they just come on their own, and I can't really stop it. I don't usually black out that much, either." He nodded as I opened the door and ran upstairs to my room. I grabbed a few envelopes and my black tote with all my work papers before walking back downstairs. I found Chris in the living room, looking around at all the things I had on the walls and the shelves.

"Okay, I'll be gone for about an hour, two hours tops. You can go and pick out a bedroom, I have three spare rooms, and I guess you can set it up and do whatever you want with it. I'll be back to help you get situated," I said as I grabbed my leather jacket and keys off the counter. Before walking out of the house, I ran back in and pulled Chris into a hug. He laughed a bit before gladly returning the gesture.

"I can't tell you how happy I am that you're here now," I smiled as I pulled away from him.

"Neither can I." I smiled and ruffled his hair before walking out the door and to my truck, bracing myself for what I would have to deal with back at the office.

_**No Eric in this one guys (Well, not really). But we did get to see Sam, so that'll just have to hold you guys until Eric makes another appearance, which will probably be in the next one.**_

_**I have to say, I was quite sad with the lack of reviews I got for this story. If it's really that bad, then I'll stop writing and I'll just work on my other two stories. And even though I really like where I'm going with this, if you guys don't like it, I'll be forced to stop writing. And I REALLY don't want to have to. Don't let me have to do that. Spread the word, people. Come on! Let's make Eric live!**_

_**Until next time,**_

_**PoisonLipz**_


	3. Not On My Agenda

_**I got this done in a day, which never happens, so be very grateful and enjoy! And a quick shout out to murgatroid -98. You definitely made my morning!**_

_**On to chapter 3!**_

I sat at my desk, tapping my pen on my chin as I tried hard to concentrate on the work I had in front of me. I had a report that had to be done and handed to my supervisor by the end of the night, and I was sitting there, lollygagging. It wasn't my fault, however. It was already after ten in the night, and all day I had been plagued with visions. It wasn't as if they were coming regularly. They were coming extremely fast and rapidly. I would get about seven different visions every hour. I couldn't even remember the last time I got them so quickly. If they were just regular visions of nothing, then I wouldn't be too worried, but that wasn't the case. Everything I saw were glimpses of a familiar black and red colored rooms. I tried to tell myself that it meant nothing, that nothing would happen, but that was a lost cause. It didn't do anything to help my nerves at all.

"What's the matter? You've been distracted by something all day," Deandra said as she walked into my office.

"It's nothing."

"Who the hell you think you lying to?"

I shook my head and smiled before looking up at her. "Seriously, I'm fine. It's just…" I paused and looked out the glass door, making sure no one was about to walk in, "these visions have been driving me crazy today. They've been coming really fast and usually, I can block them, but it's been difficult. Every time I try to, I get an extra painful headache."

"This isn't normal?"

"No way! Usually I get about 20 or so a day, but I've already had at least 70 visions today."

"That's odd. I mean, you getting these visions period is odd to begin with, so I can't really say much."

"Maybe I'm looking into it too much. I mean, it's been a long and busy day. Maybe it's nothing."

"Hopefully it's nothing," she corrected me, and I nodded in agreement. "Well, the reason I came in is because Charles said that he wanted you to have a look at this before you left today. He said that you would enjoy it. It's a rather odd one," she shrugged before she handed me the manila folder and stood up to leave. She pulled open the door and was about to walk out before she turned back around.

"I'm going to that Chinese store a few blocks down. You want me to get you something?"

"Please. That would be amazing. I had so much to do that I skipped lunch today. I'm starving."

"Well there you go! You're all screwed up because you haven't had anything substantial in your system besides coffee. I'll get you General Tso's with white rice and broccoli, an egg roll and a can of Dr. Pepper?"

"Oh God, I love you so much!" I laughed. She grinned before walking out the door of my office.

"_You know, we could have a lot of fun together," the vampire said as he peered down at the girl._

"_That's okay. I need to sat with my friends anyway. I'm not interested," she giggled as she tried walking away. However, the vampire caught a hold of her wrist and turned her back around so she was again facing him._

"_You will leave your friends and come along with me. Do you understand?" the vampire spoke in a calm voice as he stared intently into the young woman's eyes._

"_Yes… I understand."_

I exhaled as I was pulled out of my trance, just in time to hear my cell phone buzzing on the table. I picked it up and pressed the talk button, placing it to my ear.

"What's up Chris? Are you out of work already?" I asked. I could hear the buzz of people covering in the background.

"Nah. I was calling to let you know that I might be out a little later than expected. Sam said that he's missing some people today, so he needs all the help he can get. Is that okay?"

"Yeah. Of course, it's fine. Just call me like 20 minutes before you know you're getting out or else you'll be waiting for like 45 minutes."

"Okay, sure thing."

"So how do you like it so far?"

"It's good. Everything's pretty good over here. Sorry, I can't talk because of the rush-"

"It's fine. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye," I said before hanging up. I placed the phone back on my desk and placed both hands over my face. I breathed in deeply a few times, trying to put a block on the visions. It was getting extremely difficult to do, which has never happened before. It did alarm me, which was never a good sign. I stopped trying when I felt a wave of flashes go through my mind, effectively giving me a headache. I placed my head on the cold glass that was my desk and groaned. I jumped up when I heard my phone vibrate against the glass. I picked it up and furrowed my brow as I saw Shawn's number pop up.

"Hello?" I spoke as I heard loud music booming in the background.

"Anna! Anna, you there?" he shouted in the receiver. I winced at the volume which was just making my headache worse.

"Yes, Shawn. I'm here. What's up?"

"Okay. Okay, don't get mad at me, alright?"

"I'm not promising shit. What is it?" I said, wanting him to stop beating around the bush.

"Umm… okay. I kind of need your help."

"With what?"

"Uh, Mariah."

"Shawn, I told you that I don't like that girl. I still don't know why you're even stressing-"

"Anna!" he shouted, which made me stop talking. He sounded genuinely worried and scared about something.

"Shawn. What's wrong?"

"Mariah's… she's in Fangtasia and I can't get her out of there."

"What do you mean you can't get her out of there?"

"She's in thee with a bunch of vampires and they won't let her come out. It's like they have her under some sort of spell or something. I tried before, but they threatened to kill me," he explained hurriedly.

"Well…" I chuckled, finally understanding where all the visions where stemming from. "What do you want me to do, Shawn? If they threatened to kill you, then leave her alone. She shouldn't have gone back there," I sighed.

"I know that! But I can't just leave her in there Anna," he huffed. I ran a hand through my hair, genuinely frustrated.

"Well, what the hell am I supposed to do, Shawn? Call up Fangtasia and ask them to take her out of the bar?"

"No, of course not. But… I was wondering if you could come down here and help me get her out?"

"Shawn," I groaned.

"Please Anna? Matt's already here, and Amber didn't want to come, so you're the only choice I have left. And you're the only one I've got-"

"Yeah, Shawn, but I can't just get up and drive to Shreveport! I'm still at work anyway. I mean-" I pulled the phone away from my ear and rubbed my temple. At this point, I was already out of my seat and standing in front of the large glass windows in my office that overlooked the city.

This was bad. Not only did this explain the vast amounts of visions I was getting, but the thought unnerved me extremely. I didn't get any visions that showed anything bad happening to me or my friends, but I had the strongest gut feeling that something was going to happen to one of us. And my gut feelings are never wrong.

"What if this doesn't work, Shawn? Then what? Or what if it does? Making enemies that just so happen to be vampires was not on my agenda today, " I explained after placing the phone back to my ear.

"I know… but I have to try, Annie. I care about her… even though no one else does. Please Anna. I'm begging you," he pleaded. I shook my head, a wry smile forming its way o my lips. The thing that probably bothered me the most was that the vampire was right when he said _I would be back_. No matter how adamant I was about not returning, I was eventually pulled right back over there. I was seriously going to have to question my own sanity after the night was over.

"I'll see you soon, Chris."

~.~.~.~

I could see the bright red neon sign that read 'Fangtasia' as I got closer to the club. I pulled right into the lot and parked close to the entrance. There weren't many cars around, so I figured that there wasn't many people inside. I mean, it was Wednesday, after all. I stepped out of the car and locked it with my keys, and didn't even have a moment to breath before Shawn and Matt were next to me.

"Thanks a lot, Anna. You don't know how much this means to me," Shawn spoke first, and I couldn't help but feel bad for him when I saw his face. I was never going to understand why, but I could tell that he really cared about this girl.

"I'm your friend, Shawn. I wasn't going to let yourself get killed alone," I said, giving him a small smile, which he returned.

"Okay, how are we going to go about this? I mean, we can't just go in and demand that they give Mariah to us. We'll be dead for sure," Matt said.

"I know. So we have to act like nothing is going on. We have to pretend that we're just going in to get a few drinks," I explained.

"But they've already seen Shawn go in. If they see him come back with more people, their bound to think that we're gonna try and start trouble," Matt replied.

"That's true…" I sighed, contemplating for a minute. "Okay, then Shawn's going to have to wait outside."

"But I can't-"

"Listen to me! Matt and I will go in and try to find Mariah. If we do, then we'll figure something out from there. You're going to have to stay out here and keep watch of the front and back entrance in case they try to leave with her. If that does happen, call both of us as soon as possible. Do not try and stop them yourself, because they won't hesitate to kill you. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah. I understand."

"Here. Take this," I said as I reached out of my purse and pulled out a long chain. "I stopped by my house and picked these up on the way here. I heard that silver hurts vampires and it could weaken them. It anything does happen, don't hesitate. You take one too," I said, handing one to Matt as well.

"Well what are you going to use?" Matt asked.

"I already have a silver necklace, two bracelets and a ring on. And if anything happens, I have a spare chain in my purse," I said, pointing to my wrists and neck. They both gave me a strange look. "I'm not an idiot. I don't walk into a situation like this without being prepared," I smirked. "Ready?" I asked. Both of then nodded. I exhaled and watched as Shawn began slowly making his way to the back of the bar.

Both Matt and I walked over to the entrance, pulling the black leather door open. Just as I had suspected, there wasn't a vast amount of people inside the bar. It wasn't as crowded as it was on Friday, but it would still be difficult to locate. We hadn't even walked in completely when we heard a familiar voice from behind.

"Back so soon?"

We turned around and saw the bouncer from before standing there, a playful smile on her lips. Just by looking at her outfit, I could tell that she loved leather. I watched as her eyes scanned up and down my body.

"I have to say, I much preferred the outfit you had on last time," she said as she tugged on the collar of my purple silk ruffle shirt while gesturing to my black pencil skirt and kitten heels.

"Yeah well, I wasn't really planning on coming back. It's been a long day at the office and I needed some liquor in my system," I chuckled, trying not to make my presence there seem suspicious.

"Eric said that you'd return. I'd say it was fate, but we all know that's a load of crap," she said immediately after I was done talking.

"Oh…" was all I could think of saying.

"You do happen to be his type, after all," she smirked.

"His type?"

"Tall, long legs, dark hair, bright eyes… busty," she added, glancing down to my chest. I casually cleared my throat and tightened my short jacket around my torso. She looked up and I gave her a small smile. "He'll be trilled to know that you're back. And So soon too," she said before walking away. I glanced over at the stage and was surprisingly relieved when I didn't see him sitting up there in that throne of his.

"Great. Now we don't have much time before he comes out and sees us," Matt said over the music.

"We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to find Mariah and try and get her out. Go over to the bar. I'll be on the opposite side so we could scan out the entire area. Now go," said as I softly pushed him in the direction of the bar. I walked to the opposite side where tables and chairs were set up, and I took a seat at an empty table. Just as I was about to begin my search, someone had walked over and taken the seat across from me.

"What's a sexy thing like you doing here all alone?" the man spoke as he eyed me. He had short brown hair and was a bit huge, but was a bit on the short side. I was probably taller than him.

"I'm not alone."

"I hope you're not referring to that human that you came in here with. He's hardly anything that I can be for you," he replied, playing with the ends of my hair. I casually cleared my throat and pulled all my hair behind my back, successfully pulling it out of his grip in the process.

"Actually, I wasn't talking about him. I'm waiting for someone, and I don't think he would appreciate you touching me like that," I said, a stoic look on my face.

"And just who might that be?" he grinned.

"Eric Northman."

Now, out of all the names that were swimming in my head at that moment, I don't know why the hell _those _words came out of my mouth. I meant to say Shawn's full name and see what happened after that, but Eric's name just slipped out of my mouth, even though that wasn't what I had intended to say at all. It wasn't even in my mind. Lucky for me, however, it worked its magic, because the grin on the vampire's face was gone in an instant. Now, he just looked genuinely scared.

"Oh. My bad. I didn't know that Eric had claimed you. You don't really smell like him."

'_Claimed me?'_ I thought. I wonder what that meant exactly.

"It's fine. Everyone makes mistakes. I'll tell him that you said hi," I smiled, playing along now.

"No… no. It's fine. I'll just… uh… leave you alone now," he said, immediately getting up and walking away. I released a sigh, glad that that problem was over and done with. But now I had something much more important to worry about. I glanced at Matt, who was sitting with his back against the bar, looking for Mariah.

I turned around in my seat, closing my eyes and relaxing my mind. I needed to concentrate hard if we were ever going to find her. The only things that were in my mind right now consisted of Mariah, Fangtasia, Vampires and Danger.

_Two vampires walked out the back door of the Fangtasia, wide grins on their faces. One was a skinny male with dark brown hair while the other was a female with wild, fiery red hair. They scanned the area, looking to see if anyone was watching them. The final vampire walked through the back, a woman thrown over his large shoulder._

"_Let's hurry up and get out of here before Eric comes out. You know that he doesn't like us feeding on the premises," the redhead said._

"_I'm hungry right now. We just have to make it quick and clean," said the skinny vampire. He appeared behind the larger vampire and grabbed the unconscious girl's wrist, licking it. His fangs immediately popped out, revealing his animalistic nature. "I know I'm not the only one who wants this right now."_

_The fangs of the other two vampires revealed themselves as they placed the girl on the ground, rather roughly. Each of them appeared over her, both males grabbing her wrist and neck, the female grabbing her exposed thigh._

"_Let's make this quick," she grinned before sinking her fangs into her thigh._

I opened my eyes, exhaling sharply as I got out of my trance. I stood up from the seat, looking to the bar where I left Matt. He looked at me and I waved him over as I began making my way over to the entrance.

"Did you see her?"

"I saw a few guys leave around the back. They had someone around their shoulder and I'm pretty sure it was Mariah," I said quietly as we exited the front of the bar. We began making our way around, but froze in our paths when we heard a shout from Shawn.

"Hey! Get away from her!"

"Oh shit, Shawn," I muttered as Matt and I ran to the back of the bar. We got there just in time to watch the three vampires rise from their position on the ground. Their fangs were still extracted, and their mouths were covered with blood, which made them look even more menacing.

"Would you look at that! Take one meal, get three more free!" the skinny male laughed as he took a step forward.

"What is that tantalizing smell?" the big vampire asked as he took a few steps towards the tree of us.

"It's the girl. Her blood smells extremely… delicious," said the redhead, grinning. The skinny vampire kneeled back down on the ground and grabbed Mariah's right thigh, sinking his fangs into it.

"Hey! Get off her you sick fuck!" Shawn yelled as he ran towards the three vampires. I tried to reach out and grab him, but I was too slow, and it was too late.

In an instant, the larger vampire had both Matt and Shawn at the throat, and the redhead had me by the shirt, successfully lifting me up in the air and pinning me up against the wall. My heart was already pounding, and it didn't help when her nose trialed its way up my neck, taking in my scent. While she was enjoying my natural scent, I twisted my ring so that the larger side was inside my palm. From the corner of my eye, I saw that Matt caught on to what I was doing, and he slowly slid his hand into the pocket that held the silver chain I gave him.

"You smell extremely different than any human that I have ever met. What are you?" she grinned, her bloody teeth gleaming.

Instead of giving her an answer, I slammed my hand on the side of her face, feeling her skin sizzle under my palm. She let out a loud growl as she released her grip on me, dropping me do the ground. I didn't bother wasting a second as I pulled off the silver necklace I had on. Running behind the vampire that held Shawn and Matt, I tossed it over his head and pulled it against his neck. He let out a loud scream as he tried to pry the chain off his neck.

"Hurry up! Tie his hands with the chains!" I shouted as the scrambled to their feet. I made a know on the back of my necklace while Matt tied the chain around his wrists. We watched him drop to the floor in pain while Shawn ripped open his pants and tied his chain around his bare ankles.

The skinny human had stood up from where he was feeding on Mariah and had found his way in front of Matt. Before anyone could even blink, he had thrown Matt across the lot, making him land on the curb of the road.

"Matt!" I screamed, ready to run over to him. The skinny vampire stopped me, however, when he shoved me roughly to the ground. I watched as he kicked him in the head, knocking him out cold. I didn't even have time to run over and help any of them.

I paused as I felt a gust of wind blow behind me, and I turned around, only to be grabbed by the throat by the redhead, who looked extra pissed now. In less than a second, she had me slammed back up against the wall, knocking the wind right out of me. She tightened her grip around my neck and I clawed at her wrist, trying to get her to ease up.

"You know, it's little bitches like you that make me glad I'm no longer human…" she began as her free hand found my torso, "You're all stuck up," she sneered as she pressed her finger on my right lower rib, earning herself a snap in the process. I let out a scream which was stifled by her hand, which tightened her grip around my throat.

"You all think you're better than everyone because you went to college and got a degree," she continued, climbing up my chest and pushing in a second rib bone. I didn't even process the sound of the sickening snap before another scream had erupted from my throat. The cracked, or broken, ribs paired with her hand around my throat was beginning to make it very difficult for me to breathe. At this point, I wasn't sure how more I could take.

"And you all act like your so special and perfect, because you were born with silver spoons up your fucking asses!" she exclaimed this time as she pushed her entire palm into my chest, pushing in a number of ribs in the process. Despite her tight grip on my throat, I couldn't stop the cry of anguish that escaped my lips. Now it was extremely difficult to take in a small amount of air, and I was afraid that she had punctured a lung. Hopefully it didn't do that much damage, cause then I would be in serious trouble.

She dropped me on the ground, allowing me to sink to my knees in pain. She didn't give me much time to recover, however, as she grabbed onto a handful of my hair and pulled it to the side, giving her easy access to my neck.

"Aww, poor baby. Don't worry… I'll put you out of your misery," she said as she revealed her fangs. I could hear Shawn and Matt shouting from far away, but I couldn't do much in the position I was in. I shut my eyes and waited for her fangs to sink into my skin, and I couldn't help but think about how much this had resembled my dream. The only difference was that the dream was a lot less painful.

I felt her grip on my hair release, and I didn't care enough to look up and see why. All I could do at that moment was sink to the floor and buckle over from the immense pain that I was experiencing. I rested my forehead on the concrete as I tried to control my breathing and bring it to a steady pace, which was difficult to do even if I took in a small amount of air into my lungs.

"Clearly, I've made it known that is it forbidden to feed on my premises, yet the three of you seemed to have difficulty understanding. Maybe it'll become clearer through other means. Pam," I heard a voice say, and I couldn't recognize it at first. It was safe to say that the pain was clouding my mind. I opened my eyes a bit and I could see someone lifting the skinny vampire and the redhead by their necks, disappearing seconds after.

"Get away from her!" I heard Matt shout, but I wasn't sure what he was talking about or who he was talking to.

I felt a cold hand on my back, unsure of what was going to happen. I couldn't even move because of the pain, so I settled for just lying on the ground, waiting for whatever was going to happen to me next. I felt as whoever it was slowly traced up the side of my waist, which caused me to let out a small groan from the pain. It wasn't until the same hand flipped me over on my back that I let out a loud cry.

My breathing became more ragged due to the change of position, but it was a bit easier to breath once I was on my back. The same hand that was on my back before was now tracing over my torso ever so lightly, making sure that they didn't cause me any discomfort. That was, however, only an assumption. "Get your hands off her you son of a bitch!" Matt yelled again, and I finally forced my eyes open to see what he kept yelling at.

I was shocked and surprised to see Eric kneeling beside me. He wasn't looking at my face at the moment, but checking the damage done to my body instead. When his eyes did finally meet mine, I didn't miss the smirk that made its way on his lips. "I told you that you would be back before you knew it." I furrowed my brows, wondering how he could be so calm in a situation like this. I was scared shitless, and he was as nonchalant as ever.

"The three idiots have been taken care of. What now?" asked the bouncer, who I figured was Pam, as she returned in the blink of an eye.

"Not sure. Her friends are fine, just a few bruises here and there. The other one has lost blood, but she'll survive. She, however," he said, gesturing to me with his eyes, "has two cracked ribs, three broken, all of them bruised," he explained as he stood from his kneeling position.

"Well what are you planning to do? If you call 911, EMTs will be here along with the cops. I do not need that kind of stress tonight," said Pam as she placed a hand on her hip. I watched as he looked me over before placing his hands into his pockets.

"Watch over the bar, Pam. I shouldn't be gone too long. If anything, I'll be back by sunrise." She rolled her eyes before disappearing again. I could only assume that she was returning to the bar. Eric was back on the floor in an instant, and he turned my face towards him so that I was looking directly at him. "You need to take long, slow breaths or else it's going to hurt a lot worse than it has to."

I nodded in understanding as I did what he told me, relieved to find that it was a bit easier to breath. I did, however, had to bit my lip from screaming when he swiftly and unexpectedly lifted me in his arms.

"No! Where are you taking her?" Shawn yelled this time. He stopped walking and turned around to face the back. I opened my eyes and saw Shawn leaned up against the wall as Matt was trying to stand up on his own, using one of the cars to so support him.

"If you are unable to figure that out on your own, then you are much dumber than I imagined," Eric commented before turning back around and continuing towards wherever he was going. I sincerely hoped that it was the hospital that he was taking about.

So many things were going through my mind at that moment: How bad were my injuries? Did I puncture a lung? If I was at the hospital, who was going to pick up Chris? Why did Eric save me? Were Matt and Shawn okay? Did Mariah survive? What the hell was going to happen now? I closed my eyes and tried to get a vision out of all the confusion that was in my brain, but ended up passing out from the exhaustion.

_**Damn. A lot of stuff went down in this one. I hope I've been keeping everyone in character and very realistic. Yes, a bit more Eric in this chapter. Don't worry, he'll be in it a lot more after this. **_

_**BTW: If anyone has any ideas that they want to offer for this story, then I would love to hear them. Just send them in a message and I'll definitely see what I can do. Hope you enjoyed this one, and I'll get the next one up ASAP.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**PoisonLipz**_


	4. Ironic As Hell

_**Chris's POV**_

I walked into Saint Francis Medical Center, scared out of my mind. I had gotten a call from a woman named Deandra who worked with Anna, saying that Anna was in the hospital. It's safe to say that I was shocked, seeing as how I had talked to Anna less than an hour before. I asked what was the problem, but Deandra said that she had gotten the call from another one of Anna's friends. She didn't even know that she was planning on leaving the office early, so she was equally shocked when she got a call saying that she was in the hospital.

Initially, I had no idea how I was going to get there, seeing as how I wasn't too familiar with the town yet and I didn't have a car to take me. Thankfully, after hearing about the situation, my boss Sam had offered to take me to the hospital. Sam was a generally nice guy, and he would help out anyone who needed it, but I was pretty sure that he was genuinely concerned about Anna. Since the first day I could tell that he had a bit of a thing for her, and he didn't dare miss any of the times when she came to pick me up from work just so he could get a glance at her. He definitely had a crush on her. Thank goodness for that, because I was able to get a ride to the hospital. It was safe to say that that car ride was longest and most torturous hour of my life.

I walked up to the front desk of the hospital, with Sam close behind, watching as a bunch of middle aged women worked hectically around the desk, working on various things.

"Excuse me," I spoke, but none of them seemed to hear me. I repeated myself, but they still didn't look p from their work.

"Excuse me!" Sam shouted from behind, hitting the counter and causing all of the women to finally look up.

"Yes, can I help you?" the closest woman asked. Sam stepped back and gave me space to move closer to the desk.

"Hi. I'm looking for a recent admission under the name Coletti. Anastasia Coletti," I said hurriedly. I watched as she looked through papers, her eyes scanning for the name.

"Yes… she was admitted about an hour ago-"

"Where is she?" I asked, not allowing her to finish.

"She's on the fifth floor, but I'll need you to fill these out before-"

I didn't wait for her to give me the information sheets. I went around the corner, where the elevators were located and tapped on the 'up' button a few times. I could still hear the the lady trying to get me to come back, but that wasn't going to happen.

"You know you're still gonna have to fill those, out, right?" Sam asked, a hint of a smile in his voice.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Anna first, then I'll deal with whatever shit they want me to," I replied as the elevator arrived. We both stepped in, along with some more people. I tapped the button labeled '5' while everyone else picked their floors. The first time the doors reopened, I almost bolted out of the metal box, but Sam held me back, showing me that we had only gotten to the second floor. I had to wait again while the elevator stopped on the fourth floor. I was about ready to kill someone if we didn't get on the fifth floor… and fast.

I dashed out of the elevator and onto the fifth floor, where they were apparently holding Anna. It was extremely crowded up there, with various people waiting while doctors and nurses ran back and forth. This only made me more nervous and I could only pray that whatever happened to Anna wasn't serious.

"Are you Christopher?"

I turned around and watched as a dark skinned woman approached me. She had dark brown hair that went past her shoulders a bit and light brown eyes. She was dressed in a pair of slacks and a white blouse, business attire. I could only assume that she was Deandra.

"Yeah. Is my sister okay? What happened to her? Where are they holding her?" I questioned frantically.

"I don't know. The doctor won't let any of us see her because we're not family members. We've all been waiting for you to get here," she explained, worry etched on her face.

"Well who else is here? Does anyone else know what happened? Who else was with her?"

"Talk to them," she said as she crossed her arms and jerked her head behind me.

I turned around and looked over Sam's shoulder to see who she was talking about. There were three men standing in the corner. One of them had short brown hair and had a sling around his arm. He also looked like he had a bruise around his neck. The guy standing next to them had darker hair, and he was holding an ice pack to his jaw. The last guy didn't even look like he wanted anything to do with them, seeing as how he stood a good distance away from the rest. I used to think that I was tall, but he was a giant compared to me. He had long blond hair that reached his shoulders and he was leaned against the wall with his arms across his chest.

I marched up to the other two right away. Seeing as how they were both injured, I figured that they had something to do with Anna getting hurt. "What the hell happened to my sister?"

Both of them looked up, surprised at the sudden outburst. "What are you talking about? Who the hell are you?" the one with the icepack asked.

"I'm Anna's brother. What the hell did you do to her?"

"Look, we didn't do anything to her! We're not to blame-"

I didn't give him time to finish whatever the hell he was going to say. I had him pulled by the sleeves of his shirt and I slammed him against the wall. I was satisfied when I saw him wince in pain. "Bullshit! You are to blame otherwise she would be at home right now instead of a fucking hospital!"

"Okay, knock it off!" Sam shouted as he pulled me off the guy. I walked a few feet away and ran a hand through my hair in frustration. I turned back around when I heard him speak again.

"I would never hurt Anna! It's the fucking vampires that did this to her!" the guy shouted, temporarily removing the ice pack from his face. I narrowed my eyes at that, confused.

'_Vampires? What the hell was she doing around vampires?'_

"Do not speak ill of me, human," I heard someone say. I turned around and saw the blonde giant, now standing straight and glaring at the guy who was yelling before. "If it wasn't for me, your friend would be dead right now."

"You saved Anna?" I asked. I found it hard to believe, seeing as how he was apparently a vampire. He averted his gaze and looked towards me, a bored expression on his face. Before anything else could be said, a doctor walked out of the room, towards our little crowd.

"Is the family member here yet?"

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm her brother," I said as I hurriedly approached him. I stopped in front and waited as he scribbled something on his clipboard.

"Well, Mr. Coletti… your sister is very lucky," he said as he pulled out a diagram of the skeletal system and placed it on top of the clipboard. "Your sister has three broken ribs on her left side and two cracked ones on her right. All of those are bruised as well. We're lucky that they didn't go in to far. It would have caused the lung to be punctured, and she would have been beyond saving."

"But she's okay now?"

"She'll be perfectly fine. She also has bruises on her back and on her neck, so that will cause some additional pain. She'll have to take it easy for a while."

"Of course. Can I see her?"

"In a moment. While you wait, can I ask you to fill out these sheets, please?" he said, handing me the clipboard. I nodded and took it from his grip. He walked away, and all I could do was lean on the wall and sigh in relief.

"What did the doctor say?" Deandra asked as the two other guys approached as well. The one with the ice pack kept his distance, but the one with the sling was right in front of me.

"He said that she'll be okay. She has three broken ribs, two cracked, and they're all bruised. She has some bruises on her back and some around her neck."

"But she's okay?" the guy in the sling asked.

"She will be," I sighed. Both of them nodded and sighed as well.

"Aww…. Shit!"

I looked to my right, immediately recognizing Anna's voice. I didn't hesitate for a second before I was running in the direction of the voice. I passed by three different rooms before I caught a glimpse of the dark purple shirt that Anna had left the house with this morning. I walked into her room and pulled the curtain open completely.

There she was, looking through the bathroom mirror as she examined the bruise on her neck. I winced as I caught a full view of it. It went completely around and it was clear that it was a hand that left the marks. What other reason could explain four long purple bruises that went around your neck?

"How am I going to go to work like this tomorrow? Everyone's going to think that I was attacked or molested or almost killed! I mean I was, but I don't want anyone to know that!" she whined, her voice sounding unusually raspy. It was probably from all the choking that she had received. It also sounded very thick and heavy, like she was drunk, which I'm sure wasn't the case. She had her shirt on, but it wasn't buttoned, so I could see all the bandages that had been wrapped around her torso.

"Anna."

She turned towards me, and her eyes brightened immediately. She walked out of the bathroom, a pole holding IV in her hand. "Chris? What are you-"

I didn't allow her to finish before my hands were wrapped around her, careful not to cause her any discomfort. She giggled and patted my back, rubbing it slowly.

"What's the matter, silly? Why are you so sad?"

"I'm going to protect you, Annie. I promise. This won't happen again," I whispered in her ear, trying to keep my voice steady. It just became aware to me how close I was to losing her tonight. The thought alone terrified me. I just got her back, and losing her again was not an option.

"No… I have to protect you. I'm the older sister, after all," she smiled as she released me and sat on the hospital bed. I saw her eyes widen, and I looked behind me. Everyone was standing outside the door, waiting for our little moment to be over. I turned back around and buttoned the top of her shirt, which was previously revealing a little too much for my liking.

"Dee, I'm so sorry. I had you run all the way to the Chinese food store, and I didn't even get a chance to eat it. I hope you're not mad at me, because that would make me really sad," she sighed, pouting a bit.

"Well, the effects of the morphine are definitely kicking in," Deandra said as she walked in and hugged Anna, earning herself a few childish giggles. I placed the clipboard on the bed and crossed my arms over my chest.

"I want to know what happened," I said as everyone had made their way inside of the room.

"Good luck getting anything out of them. They've been quiet since they showed up," Deandra commented as she inspected Anna's neck.

"Oh, I'm sure I could shed some light on things," the vampire said from where he was leaning on the wall.

"Please, enlighten us," I said.

"This one," he began, gesturing to the guy with the ice pack, "arrived at my bar early this evening with some girl. Shortly after, she made herself comfortable with a few other vampires. He tried to get her out, but they threatened to kill him if he didn't leave. He left the bar, but not too long after, he and your sister arrived at my bar," he said, looking towards the guy with the sling this time. "They decided that they would take his girl away from the vampires on their own, got themselves in the middle of a battle they had no chance of winning and now… here we are," he smirked. "It was a pretty poor move on their part."

"So let me get this straight…" Deandra began, placing her palms on the mattress, "This all happened because of some little whore you wanted to rescue?"

"Don't call her a whore!"

"Oh please, Shawn! I've seen her and Anna's told me about her. She's as slutty as they fucking come!"

"Shut up, Dee. You don't even know what you're talking about!"

"Do you know what you're talking about?" I shouted this time. "You're busy defending some other bitch while Anna's in here with needles in her arm. You do remember Anna, right? She's your supposed friend? Does it ring a bell?"

"Look, we all just need to calm down!" the guy in the sling finally spoke.

"You need to stop blaming this whole thing on me and blame it on the real ones who did this! This was all the vampires' doing, not mine."

"Excuse me!" one of the nurses shouted, appearing in the doorway. "If you don't all lower your voices, then I'm going to have to ask all of you to leave!" She gave each of us a look before walking back out of the room, pulling the curtain closed in the process.

"Yeah, guys. Let's… let's stop arguing. I don't like it. It makes me upset. You know what you should do to get happy? Just give each other a big hug. Everyone loves a hug!" Anna smiled.

"I don't take lightly to you insulting me, breather. Especially when we're in the same exact room," said the vampire, leaning of the wall. "Maybe you were blind during the entire altercation, but if it wasn't for me, that vampire would have sucked Anastasia dry. Instead of insulting my kind, you should be thanking us… or at least me. I could have simply turned a blind eye and let those imbeciles drain every last one of you. "

"It's true," Anna said, making us all look in her direction. "That girl with the red hair was going to bite me right here," she said pointing to the right side of her neck. "I don't know why, but she didn't like me very much. And… if Eric didn't come when he did then…" she paused, trying to find the right words, "Well goodness, I don't know what would have happened to me," she gasped, placing her head in her palm. I couldn't help but smile at her expression and her drug induced behavior.

"I love how you used her to your advantage," Deandra continued.

"I didn't beg her to come and help me. She didn't have to if she didn't want to."

"Bullshit, Shawn! You know that Anna is the most selfless person on the planet. You knew that she would have been there in a heartbeat. She almost died because of you."

Before anyone could argue anymore, Anna broke out into a fit of giggles. She sounded like she was high, and technically, she was.

"You want to hear something really funny?" she asked. When no one spoke, she continued on. "Irony!" she smiled. I furrowed my brow at that, wondering if it was the drugs talking or her. "Come on! You know what I mean. Like…" she began, but scratched her head in thought. "Okay, like, if an activist is fighting to get animal rights in America, and stop all animal cruelty and everything, but then he ends up getting mauled by like, the biggest black bear. I mean… that's just ironic as hell!" she giggled. "O-or in your case," she continued, gesturing towards Eric this time, "If a vampire rights activist is fighting really hard to get the Vampire Rights Amendment passed, but they end up getting all the blood sucked out of their body by none other than a vampire! Right?" she laughed.

"I mean, this entire night has just been ironic for me. I mean, you'd think a person like me would have seen _this_ coming! Me! I mean, I saw everything else that was going to happen. I mean, I knew Dee was going to get me Chinese, and I knew that Chris was going to work late, but this was just crazy. It's partly my fault too. I should have been smarter. I mean, I saw vampires and barstools and red and black and even that weird Tru Blood drink. I saw all the insignificant crap, but I couldn't see-"

"Nurse!" I shouted, stopping Anna in the middle of her rant.

"You must be really hungry, huh Anna?" Deandra smiled.

"I am. I really am," she whispered, rubbing the part of her stomach that wasn't bandaged.

"Okay. I'll go and get you some food. Just sit tight and keep quiet, okay?" Deandra suggested, and Anna placed her hand to her mouth and imitated a zipper being closed. Deandra smiled before walking out of the room, just as the nurse entered.

"Can you just give her some sleep medicine so that she could rest, please?" I asked quietly.

"No, not yet. I'm starving. Can I eat first?"

"Okay. Can you give it to her after she gets some food in her system?" I asked.

"Of course," the nurse said before checking the clipboard that was on the bed and walking out. I let out a sigh before looking around the room, checking to see if anyone found anything Anna said odd. Her friends didn't seem to think anything of it, and neither did Sam.

Eric, however, was looking straight at her, his eyes narrowed a bit and his face very concentrated, as if he was deep in thought. His eyes darted towards me, and I stared back a while before slowly looking back towards the clipboard that was on the bed.

'_Shit. He knows something's up,'_ I thought with a sigh as I filled out all of the parts of the information sheet that I knew the answer to. This was definitely bad. When I was done, I placed the papers on the bed and took her hand in my own, and she looked up and smiled at me before her face went into shock.

"Oh my gosh! How did you even get here? Bon Temps is far away! You didn't even have a car. You didn't drive, did you? Wait… can you even drive."

"Yeah, I can. But no, it's okay. My boss gave me a ride. You remember Sam, right?" I said, pointing to Sam who was standing in the far corner of the room. He looked up when he heard her name and gave Anna a small smile. She lifted her hand and lazily waved him over. I moved out of the way as he made his way to the side of her bed. She moved her hand again, telling him to move closer. He was surprised when she threw her hands over him, hugging his shoulders. He laughed nervously and patter her back awkwardly. Yeah, he was going to be happy tonight.

"Thank you for taking care of my brother," she said quietly with the most serious face I'd seen her put on all night. She may have still been o high on morphine, but she was aware enough to say that.

"It was nothing," he said in that very southern voice of his.

"Okay, Mister Coletti," the doctor said as he entered the room, a bag in hand. "Your sister will be a little disoriented. A side effect of the morphine, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, of course. Can she leave tonight?"

"I don't see why not. You are going to have to keep a close eye on her, however. Make sure she doesn't overwork herself. She'll need to get a lot of rest if she wants her injuries to heal quickly."

"I will," I replied as I handed him the papers.

"You'll need these," he said as he handed me the hospital bag. "There are bandages of all kind in here, as well as adhesive tape. You need to make sure that the affected area is bandaged at all times, otherwise the healing process will take a lot longer than needed. The boned need to stay in place, and that will only work if she follows this regimen. If you ever run out, the bandages could be purchased at any pharmacy. There are also three prescriptions she has to fill out. One is for overall pain and discomfort. Another is to numb the pain and make breathing a lot easier, seeing as how it will be very difficult to regulate until she completely heals. There are also some sleeping pills that will allow her to sleep easier. I suggest you fill those out right away."

I nodded, watching as a nurse came over and disconnected the needles that were in Anna's arm. I looked at the prescription forms. Hopefully I would be able to find a 24 hour pharmacy so I could get the pills right away. I watched as the nurse injected something into the crook of Anna's arm, then cover it with a Band-Aid. It was most likely the anesthesia that I requested. The doctor left shortly after, telling me that I could leave with Anna whenever I was ready.

"Here, honey. They didn't really have much downstairs, so I got you this," Deandra said as she walked back in the room, an apple in hand. She handed it to Anna, who took it gratefully. While she ate it, I walked over and casually pulled Deandra over, leaning down to her ear.

"Did Anna tell you?"

"About her… issue?" she said, choosing her words carefully as she glanced at the vampire, who was once again watching Anna. "Yeah. I've known about it for a while now."

"When did she tell you?"

"Well, I've known her since she moved down here, and I found out about a year later."

I nodded in understanding. I could already tell that Anna and Deandra had a pretty tight relationship, so she was probably the only one of her friends that did know.

"Okay, how is this whole situation going to work? Who's going home with who?"

"Matt and I took a cab here, and we both live in Bossier, so we'll just share a cab back."

"I can drive you two back on my way to Bon Temps," Sam offered.

"Anna and I don't live too far away from each other. I can take you both."

"I drove her here, and I have her keys right here. It would be wise to take her truck. Unless of course you want to leave it here overnight," Eric said, pulling her keys from his pocket.

"Why do you have her keys?" the guy with the sling, I think they called him Matt, said angrily.

"I'm starting to wonder if all humans lack common sense or if it's just you two," he spoke, looking over to Shawn and Matt. "How else was I supposed to bring her here without having to go and pick up her car? Maybe you would have enjoyed the hassle. I would not have," he said, his voice low and dark throughout.

"Okay then I'll just drive her home," I said, walking over towards the giant vampire. It was safe to say that I was scared out of my mind, seeing as how I've never been in the presence of a vampire, much less this close to one. Surely he wouldn't do anything to me, seeing as how he did just save my sister. Still, the thought didn't alleviate the fear I was feeling at the moment.

I stood in front of him, wondering if it would be rude to just hold my hand out and let him give them to me. While I was contemplating the right way to take keys away from a vampire, he stood very still, his icy blue eyes observing me from head to toe. It felt like forever before he lifted his hand and placed the keys in front of my face. I cautiously took it from him and thanked him before returning next to Anna. I could already see the effects of the anesthesia working, seeing as she was no longer talkative and excited, but very lethargic. She placed the half eaten apple on the tray next to her bed and let out a lout, tired sigh.

"Okay, come on Annie," I said quietly as I helped her out of the hospital bed. She wrapped an arm around my neck and tried to support herself, but I lifted her in my arms after seeing her struggle. She didn't object, but instead placed her head in the crook of my neck and closed her eyes.

"I'll bring her things to the car," Deandra said as she grabbed Anna's heels and jacket and walked out of the room.

"I'm gonna head out," Sam said as he walked over and patted me on the shoulder.

"Sure thing. And, thank you again for the ride, man. I'll see you at work tomorrow," I said as I started walking.

"Take the day off tomorrow. She'll need you more than I will," he replied as he turned to walk out of the room. I thanked him before he left, and he replied by saying 'Don't worry about it.'

Shawn and Matt walked out of the room shortly after, leaving me and Eric alone. His half lidded eyes stared at the both of us as I began walking out of the room. I paused, however, and turned beck inside, looking up at him.

"I just wanted to say thank you… for saving Anna."

"I didn't do it for you… or her for that matter. Vampire-Human relationships are as precarious as ever right now, and the last thing we need is news of humans being massacred by vampires and interrupting whatever peace we supposedly have. Much less outside my bar," he replied.

"Well…" I began, but didn't know what to say. There wasn't really much I could say to that. "I know you didn't have to, but I'm grateful that you did."

"It's nothing to dwell on. Besides…" he said as he began moving out of the room. He turned back around once he was standing on the opposite side of the doorway, "I'm sure that there's something that Miss Coletti can do to repay me." he gave me a smirk before taking one last look at Anna and walking down the hall. I couldn't process much after that. There was only one thing that I thought of at that moment:

'_Fuck. We're in serious trouble now.'_

_**A.N.: First off, thank you very much for the reviews I have been getting for this story. I'm definitely going to keep writing. I love this story way too much to give up on it. This story is like my baby, and you can't abandon your baby, now can you? =)**_

_**Well, school is back in session, and that means that I won't have that much free time on my hands anymore. I will, however, try to update as frequently as possible.**_

_**Yeah… I think that's all. Well, until next time, this is me, signing off at… 3:09 AM (Damn! I gotta start sleeping more),**_

_**PoisonLipz**_


	5. Out The Window

_Sincerely sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I hope it didn't disappoint!_

_**Anna's POV**_

You know how it feels the morning after a crazy night of drinking, and you wake up with the Hurricane Katrina of hangovers?

Yeah, me neither. But I can only assume this was what it felt like.

I opened my eyes, and quickly regretted it, because that one action made my head started pounding. I looked around the room, and the first thing my eyes caught sight of were the three various prescription bottles that were sitting on my nightstand. I furrowed my brows, trying to recall what happened. I shifted a little bit, and felt something tight around my torso. Lifting my hand, I traced the top of my stomach and the middle of my chest, feeling the bandages that were wrapped around it. Everything seemed to flood back into my mind at that moment. Mariah and Shawn, Fangtasia, the vampires, Eric.

I tried sitting up, but found it extremely difficult to do, partly because of the pain it caused, and partly because of the bandages that were wrapped tightly around my ribcage. I placed both hands on the mattress and slowly slid myself up to a sitting position. I was panting lightly afterwards, and it amazed me how something as simple as that took so much energy out of me.

Slowly sliding off of the bed, I walked over to the standing vanity mirror that was in the corner. My eyes widened as soon as I got a good look at myself.

My neck looked unrecognizable to me. It was all different shades of purple, black and blue. It started from the middle of my neck and went down to where my collarbone started. There was also a few bruises on my right arm, right by my elbow.

I slowly pulled off the large black shirt I now had on (courtesy of Chris, I assume) and examined myself. The bandages wrapped around my waist, starting at the edge of my bra and ending just above my belly button. I tried twisting my hips a bit, but stopped when I found it to be extremely difficult.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch!" I exclaimed, frustrated out of my mind. I heard a door open in the house, and footsteps rush towards me. Chris burst through the door, dressed in a wife beater and sweatpants.

"Hey, you're up. How do you feel?" he asked, walking in and sitting on my computer chair.

"Honestly…. shitty as hell," I chuckled, running a hand through my hair.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," he smiled. "What do you remember?"

"Umm… I remember being at the office, getting a call from Shawn… going to Fangtasia and getting my ass kicked. Did I miss anything?"

"Just a little bit."

"Well, fill me in," I sighed, taking a seat on my bed.

"You first. Why the hell were you at a vampire bar?"

"My friend Shawn asked me to come and help him because there was a girl in there that he really cares about, I don't really know why, and she got involved with a few vampires and they wouldn't let her leave with him. He called me up at work and asked if I could come and help him get her out."

"Why the hell would you risk your life to go and help that douche bag? I was very close to killing him last night. And how could you do that to me? What would I have done if I lost you? You know how screwed up my life would be if you died?"

"I know, and I'm really sorry. I wasn't even thinking about the consequences. I was just thinking that my friend needed help, and I should go and help him. I'm really sorry. I didn't even consider dying at the moment. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't think that I would end up losing my life over something so trivial," I admitted.

"You really are too selfless. I forgive you for now, but you're gonna have to make it up to me in an extremely big way," he said, wagging his finger at me.

"I promise I will," I smiled. "Continue, please."

"Okay. Well, apparently you couldn't even get up after the incident, so this vampire named Eric took you to the hospital. You're friend Deandra called me at work and told me that you were there, so I came as soon as I could."

"Oh my gosh. You did you even get there? It's a long distance from Shreveport to Bon Temps."

"Sam drove me."

"Your boss?"

"Yeah. And just a heads up, I'm about 99.9% sure that he has a crush on you. He probably had a heart attack from that hug you gave him."

"What hug?"

"While you were in the hospital, they had you hocked up on morphine, which makes you as high as a damn kite, by the way, and you hugged him during that time."

"Huh. What else happened? Because I remember nothing," I asked.

"Ha ha. Funny you should mention that, because we may have a problem," he chuckled, nervously.

"Oh God."

"Yeah. Well while you were on the drugs, you started talking a little crazy. You were going on about how you should have seen everything that happened, and that you saw insignificant things, but not important things. Now, everyone else thought nothing of it, because they thought it was just the morphine talking. The vampire, however, looked kind of suspicious. And then I thanked him for saving you when you left, and he said, 'I'm sure that there's something that Miss Coletti can do to repay me.' his words exactly."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah. My words exactly. I don't think that we'll see him again, but-"

"Chris… that's the guy I was telling you about. Eric Northman. The one who I talked to at the vampire bar that time. He's the one who said that my blood smells different than everyone else and that he's gonna find out what it is that makes me different. Oh my gosh, now he definitely knows that something is up. And he's gonna find a way to get to me again. Oh my gosh, something is going to happen, and he's gonna-"

"Calm the hell down!" Chris yelled. I looked at him for a sec and sighed, rubbing my face with my hands. "He doesn't know anything. He may be a bit more suspicious than he was before, but that's all he is. Suspicious. It doesn't mean anything."

I nodded, soaking in everything he was saying. He was right. He may think something is up, but he has no clue about me. That was the most important thing. "Okay… okay, you're probably right."

"Thank you," he said. I heard the doorbell ring downstairs, and he got out of the chair and made his way out of the room. "I'll be back," he said before walking downstairs.

I sighed and rubbed my face with my hands. This was definitely bad. Eric knows something now, and from his persistence the first night that I met him, this means that he won't stop until he gets a hold of me. There was no question that I was going to avoid him as long as possible. There would be no more visits to Fangtasia. Scratch that. There would be no more visits to Shreveport, and that includes the areas around it. I was not going to go down without a fight. He was not going to get a hold of me that easily.

I picked up my head when I heard someone come inside the room. Chris had walked back inside with Deandra right next to him, dressed in office attire, and Amber in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

"You're actually alive. Thank the lord," Amber smiled as she walked over to me.

"I'll be in my room," Chris said before leaving, closing the door behind him. After placing their things on my table, they both walked over and threw her arms around me, careful not to cause me any pain.

"You must feel shitty," Dee laughed as she pulled away.

"Well, that's definitely the understatement of the day," I smiled as she sat across from me on the bed, Amber taking the chair previously occupied by Chris.

"Did Chris fill you in?" she asked.

"Just about."

"So you know about that creepy vampire who seems to be really interested in you?"

"I can't believe that you got yourself mixed up in this whole vampire mess, Anna," Amber scolded (or attempted to, at least). "Do you know how serious this is? You could have been killed.

"Yeah, well Amber, I think I _do _know how serious this is. Clearly," I said as I gestured to my ribs and neck, "it's extremely freakin' serious."

"Well you shouldn't have been back there in the first place. Those things are all evil. Spawns of Satan is what they are."

"Yeah well I had a friend that needed help and I stepped up. And no offense, but you can save me the holy preacher gospel crap," I snapped.

"I know how bad you must feel right now," Deandra began, trying to intervene, "but there's something you might want to know."

"Well it can't be any worse than this," I rationalized.

"Yeah, you would think that, but no. Umm, apparently…. Mariah is no where to be found. After the fiasco last night, before the guys came to the hospital-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait right there," I said, putting a finger up to silence everyone. "What does 'she's no where to be found' mean?"

"They said after they came to last night, they didn't see her on the ground where she was supposed to be. She's missing."

"So… let me get this straight," I laughed wryly, "I have to suffer through this misery for the next couple of months because of this bitch, and now they can't even find her? So in other words, this was all for nothing?"

"Ugh. I knew she was trouble to begin with," Amber commented.

"Shawn and Matt should be over soon. You can talk to them about it. Oh, and by the way, don't ever scare me like that again. Seeing you in the hospital like that will always be in my mind now. Trust me, it was scary seeing you like that," Dee said.

"I know, and I'm sorry. That's probably one of my worst qualities. I act on impulse all the time and I never actually sit down and analyze the situation," I smiled sadly.

"Well learn how to. If not for us, do it for your brother. He would have died if he lost you," Amber added.

I looked to the ground, completely upset with myself. Last night wasn't the same as other times when I would put people before myself. I was actually in serious danger and I could have died. I could have died, and it didn't really occur to me until now who bad that would have been- for me and for the people in my life. Things are different now. With Chris in the picture, I couldn't be reckless and impulsive. I had to rationalize before I acted.

"I'm really sorry. I really should have contemplated the different alternatives to the situation."

"Don't worry about it anymore. The good thing is that you're alive and in a few weeks you'll be completely healed. The worst is behind everyone. Now let's move on," Amber declared.

"Amen!" Dee shouted, and I couldn't help but laugh. I couldn't enjoy it too much, cause just laughing hurt like hell.

"I'll be back. I need to wash my face and take some of these," I said as I looked over the prescription bottles and took the one for pain and the one that would help me breath easier. "You guys can go downstairs and get something to eat or drink or something," I said as I walked into my bathroom and closed the door.

After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I swallowed two of each of the pills, grimacing as I felt them slip down my throat. Yes, one of the things I hated immensely was taking pills. Unless it was absolutely necessary, I never went next to a bottle of pills. Unfortunately, this seemed like one of the times when it would be necessary.

After downing a glass of water, I walked back into my bedroom to find someone sitting on my bed, their back facing me. They turned around upon hearing the door close, and I came face to face with Matt, a sling over his shoulder.

"Anna," he sighed as he rose from the bed towards me.

"Matt," I smiled. It didn't take too long for him to get to me and trap me in his arms… well, arm. I hugged him back gingerly, trying no to put too much strain on my injuries. After a while, however, I had to intervene. "Matt, not too hard," I groaned.

"Sorry," he said as he immediately released me. "Anna, you don't know how happy I am to see you right now."

"I'm glad to see you too, Matt. But, you arm-"

"Don't even worry about that. It's nothing compared to what you have to go through. It'll take a few weeks, tops, to heal. You have a few months to wait for yours to heal."

"I guess so. What about Shawn? Is he okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, he has a few bruises on his body, but he'll be alright too. He's a little… ashamed of himself right now. He doesn't really know how to face you."

"Why?"

"Well…. We couldn't find Mariah afterwards-"

"Yeah, Dee told me," I cut him off.

"Yeah, and now he's really pissed at himself. He blames himself for what happened to you. He thinks it's his fault."

"Is he here?"

"Yeah."

"Send him up, please."

He nodded and left the room. I stood in the same spot, waiting until I heard slow footsteps ascending up the stairs. Slowly but surely, Shawn made his way into my room, eyes focused on the ground. From where I stood, I could see that he was shaken up about the entire thing. His eyes looked red from crying, and his back was hunched a bit. I wasn't sure if it was from the fractured spine or just his mood. The cool, upbeat friend that I had know for the past four years was M.I.A.

I didn't wait for any words to be said. I immediately crossed the room and embraced him in my arms. It may have been weak from the pain, but it served its purpose because he carefully hugged me back.

"Anna, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. You could have died and it would have been all my fault," he mumbled into my oversized shirt.

"Hey. This wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was completely-"

"Look at me," I said as I held his face in my hands. I had to urge him to actually look me in the eyes. "This. Was not. Your fault. You didn't choke me, you didn't break my ribs, you didn't do any of this to me."

"Yeah, but I-"

"I came to help you _willingly_. If I really didn't want to, then I wouldn't have come. I came because I'm your friend. I'm already hurt enough as it is. Knowing that you feel this way will only make me feel worse. Okay?"

He looked at me for a while before giving me a small nod and a quiet okay. I smiled and gave him one last hug before we both headed downstairs into the dining room where everybody else was.

It was later than I thought it was (6:52), and everyone either had somewhere to be or something to do later on. I let them all leave, telling them that I needed the rest anyway. The one who stayed after was Deandra.

"What did Charles say?" I asked as I checked my E-mail.

"He hopes you get better soon, and he's really glad that you aren't dead."

"Wow. I feel so loved," I said sarcastically.

"Nah, he really was worried, though."

"Well, I'll be okay. He'll see that when I go in tomorrow," I said as I shut my laptop.

"Yeah… he thought you might say something like that, which is why he told me to tell you this. He said, and I quote, 'Anna, you are so stupid. You almost got killed, and you want to come into work? Take the day off. Hell, take the next moth off, and we'll see how your doing then. From this moment on, your on paid sick leave.' End quote."

I let out a loud sigh, not surprised at Dee's announcement. "I knew he was going to do that."

"Well could you blame him?" she laughed. "You haven't taken a vacation since the first day you started working there. You need the time off. And while your at it, you might even meet a nice guy."

"That is the farthest thing from my mind at this moment."

"I know, and I'm sorry but Charles's word is final. No working for the next month or so. However," she said as she reached into her briefcase, "he did ask me to give this to you. He said to work on it from home so that you'll be ready for this when you get back." she handed me an envelope which was rather thick and filled with papers. "It is an interesting case."

"Fine. I guess it'll suffice for now," I pouted.

"Glad to hear that. Anywho, I have to get going, but I'll be back tomorrow. Get some food in your system and get some rest. It's the only way the injuries will heal on time," she said as she grabbed her stuff and walked towards the door.

"I will."

"I'll call you later," she shouted before closing the door behind her. I looked at the file and slammed it down on the coffee table. I'll get to it later. Walking back up to my room, I undressed and threw on a pair of jeans and a v-neck white long sleeved shirt, and I couldn't help but notice that something that would have taken me about two minutes took me seven minutes to do. I ran back downstairs and grabbed my car keys off the kitchen counter.

"Hey Chris!"

"What's up? You okay?" he said from the stairs.

"Yeah, I'm okay. You hungry?

"Yeah, I guess."

"Okay. I'll be back. I'm gonna get us some food. Anything in particular that you're craving?"

"Pizza. And chicken. No, no. Buffalo wings."

"How about I'll just get some of everything?" I laughed as I grabbed my coat.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Wait, wait!" he said as he ran back up to get something. When he got back, he ran downstairs and handed me a thin purple scarf. "Don't think you need anyone staring at you the whole time."

"Way to use your brain," I smiled as I wrapped it around my neck. It was loose enough to be conformable, but secure enough to not reveal any of the bruises. "I'll be back shortly," I said as I left the house.

It didn't take too long to drive into the city, but because of the evening rush, there was a bit of traffic here and there. I still have no idea how I spent $78 on dinner fro two people, but I was starving and I wasn't complaining.

It took about an hour before I got back home (with Chris calling every ten minutes to make sure I was safe), and by then it was pretty dark. I walked out of the car, balancing my purse in one hand and three bags of food in the other. I walked up towards the door and positioned myself so that I could retrieve my keys from my purse. I dug inside until I felt the cool jagged edges of the metal slide across my fingers.

"Hello, Anastasia."

No. Frickin. Way.

I froze in my spot, immediately recognizing the voice. I knew exactly who it was, but didn't want to turn around to confirm my prediction. Maybe if I ran inside the house quick enough… no, that would just cause more problems. Trying to outrun a vampire, yeah, that would end well. Exhaling slowly, I turned around and came face to face with the one person that I did _not_ want to see.

"It's nice to see you again."

Well, I guess my whole 'avoid him at all costs' plan is out the window.

_**Okay. I am sorry that this was so late, but I had a lot of school related responsibilities that needed to be taken care of. But it's almost over, so I was able t squeeze this chapter in. I'm practically done with the next one, so I'll try and get it up within this week.**_

_**Okay, so I've been looking for some really good stories to read, but they've been hard to find. So I am asking my faithful readers to assist me in my search. I am currently looking for well written stories from: **__**Interview With The Vampire**__** (Lestat/OC/Louis, or an OC with just one of them,), and **__**Pirates of the Caribbean**__** (Will/OC). It doesn't have to be from this website, but I am craving a really good read. Help me out guys.**_

_**Last thing (I think), review and rate, please. They make me happy and they make Eric happy. Oh, and send in your ideas for this story because I would live to add some things that my readers would like to see. Like, if there is anything that you would want to see in the next chapter, when Eric and Anastasia confront each other for the second time, send them in quick and let me know before I post it up.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**PoisonLipz**_

_**P.S.: Almost forgot. I am now beta-ing for people, so if anyone wants me as a beta, message me and I'll be glad to do the job!**_


	6. Lucky For Me, I'm Already Dead

_Shout out to __sj61__, who keeps reminding me of the silly mistakes that I make. Much luv!_

I stood in front of my door, glued to the spot, unsure of what to do. Eric was standing just a few feet away from me, an amused look on his face. There were so many things running through my mind at that moment, that I wasn't even able to produce coherent or logical thoughts.

He looked just the way he did the first time he 'summoned' me at Fangtasia. He wore black pants and a black shirt which was accompanied by a black leather jacket. His long hair hung down the sides of his face, and his piercing eyes seemed extra blue underneath the porch light.

"What? No hello?" he smirked.

"How did you get my address?" I asked, fully turning around now and placing the bags filled with food on the ground, wincing as the pain shot through my abdomen.

"What can I say? Pam works well with computers. I could have just traced your scent back here, but that seems like a bit much," he explained, making himself comfortable on the ledge. "You certainly look a lot better. I wasn't aware that you could heal such severe injuries within 24 hours."

"Why are you here?" I asked nervously, crossing my arms over my chest.

"To see you, of course."

"What do you want?" I asked angrily.

"Why… you, of course," he smirked this time, his eyes roaming over my body. I wrapped my jacket around my body before replying.

"Look, I'm not into the games, okay? Just tell me what it is you want so that we can both get on with our lives. Or at least, I can."

He smiled at this, which I found odd. I was beginning to think that he thought everything I said was a joke, despite the fact that I was being serious as hell.

"Very well. I want to know what exactly it is that makes you so special."

"Excuse me?" I asked, dumbly. I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I wasn't going to give up without a fight.

"So we're going to have to do this the hard way…" he sighed.

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," I insisted.

"Don't be coy, Anastasia. Since the day you decided to grace my bar with your presence, there has been something extremely strange about your entire being. I saw when you blacked out while you were talking to Longshadow, which was followed by your immediate demand to leave my bar. From that point I knew something was different. I didn't hassle you right away because I was certain that you would be back."

"How were you so certain?" I asked, cutting him off for a second. He looked at me strangely, so I continued. "Once you 'summoned' me that night, I basically swore to myself that I would never go back, yet you seemed positive that I would be back, and I did eventually have to go back there. How did you know?"

"Simple. Because one of the vampires that attacked you was at the bar that night, and they glamoured your friend and told her to come back to the bar on Wednesday, and find him. I was certain that if she was coming back, so were you."

"So… what? You want me to pretend I know what glamoured means?" I asked, but before he could respond to that question, another one was already spilling out of my mouth. "Wait a second… you knew that I was going to be attacked?"

"Not necessarily, but I had a hunch. And I'm glad that I was right. Which just so happens to lead me to my next point," he continued a he began walking back and forth on my porch. "I find it very odd that you were able to discover the whereabouts of your friend without any information from anyone. Yet you knew that she would be behind my bar. And I'd rather you didn't try and deny it. I've been around for a vary long time, and my hearing is impeccable."

"That was a lucky guess," I replied. I wasn't sure if it was because of the sudden stress, but my wounds were beginning to hurt pretty bad. I wasn't sure if it was the pills wearing off or something else.

"I highly doubt that. And then there was you ranting in the hospital while you were drugged. You did say some very… interesting things."

"Well, you said it yourself, I was drugged. I was clearly talking a whole bunch of foolishness."

"Be that as it may… you have definitely piqued my curiosity."

"Didn't you hear? Curiosity killed the cat."

"Well, lucky for me, I'm already dead, so I have absolutely nothing to worry about," he retorted, stopping a few feet in front of me. "I already know that you are different than everyone else, so why not save us both the time and just tell me what I want to know. What are you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Before I could even blink, he was standing right in front of me now, both of his hands on my face, cradling my face in his palms. I was about to yell at him, but found it increasingly difficult once I made eye contact with him. It was the weirdest sensation that I had ever felt before. I couldn't move at that moment, and it was hard to concentrate on one particular thing. It was as if something had a pull on my mind, and they were controlling my body and mind. A thick fog had entered my brain. I didn't like it one bit. My mind was lost, and my entire focus was on him. He was the only person that mattered. He was the only person who existed in my world.

"What are you?" Eric coaxed quietly.

"I'm human," I responded, staring into his crystal blue eyes. He narrowed his eyes a bit before continuing with another question.

"You aren't like most humans, are you?"

I shook my head no, much to my dismay. Everything that I was doing was not actually my doing, but his pull on my mind was so strong that I couldn't lie or refuse to answer. I knew what was going on, but it was damn near impossible to break the hold that he had on me.

"Why is that?" he asked gently, running his thumb over my cheekbone and down to my chin.

"Because I can see things before they happen." _'NO!' _the logical part of my mind was screaming.

"Is that so?" he smirked this time.

"Yes."

"How does it work?"

"Sometimes they come on their own, but if I concentrate hard enough, I can see a specific person's future alone. Most of the time it's little insignificant things, but it comes in handy when I need it."

"Is that how you knew where to find that girl, Mariah, last night?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Yes. I saw the three vampires saying that they had to feed on her before you came out because there is no feeding allowed on the premises.

"Huh… this is very interesting…" he said, releasing his hold on my face and moving back a few feet. I exhaled when he released me, and I held my head, which was pounding a little bit. I let out a small groan, closing my eyes for a minute.

"So you can see the future."

I opened my eyes and looked at him, watching as the satisfied smirk he had on grew with each passing second. I remembered everything that had just happened, and I was enraged. The secret that I had kept for so long was out in the open.

"Mother Fucker! What did you do to me?" I asked, walking up to him and looking up at his tall frame.

"I simply answered your earlier question with a demonstration. I glamoured you. And I must say, I am very glad that I did."

"You have no right to intrude my mind like that-"

"Just as you have no right to intrude on people's futures," he retorted.

"I don't have control over that. You do!" I growled. I walked away from him, holding my face in my palm.

"You are extremely sexy when you're upset. Then again… you're sexy regardless-"

"What do you want?" I asked, cutting him off and looking back up. "Congratulations. Now you know my secret. Now what the hell do you want?"

"Well, I got what I came here for, so now it's time for us to negotiate."

"Negotiate?" I asked confused.

"I have heard folklore of your kind. People who can see into the future. Imagine how useful that will be for me-"

"No."

He stared right at me this time, narrowing his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not gonna make you use me whenever you please. I don't like you. You're an egotistical bastard and I hate you. I'm a person, not a thing. You can't just come and request services that I'm not even offering!"

"You didn't seem to hate me when you used my name to avoid an altercation with a vampire," he retorted.

"That doesn't mean anything. And anyway, it served its purpose because I'm still alive right now because of it."

"No, you are alive because I intervened in a fight that you would have severely lost. You owe me."

"I owe you nothing," I replied quickly. That was a lie. I did owe him. As pissed as I am to admit it, but I did owe him my life. I would most likely be dead right now if it wasn't for him.

"I knew you were stubborn since the first time I saw you, and I had anticipated a reaction like this. I only asked to be polite. If I wanted to, I could just take you," he said, all signs of amusement gone now.

"I won't go down without a fight."

"Yes, which is why I don't come unprepared."

I was fully aware now, and I waited apprehensively for what he had to say next.

"Your brother's blood may not be as rich as your own, but he still shares the same exotic quality as you-"

"You have no right to go near my brother! Do you understand me? You will not touch him!" I yelled. It hurt to use that much energy, but I was mad. How dare he try and use my brother as leverage? I'd die before I let him put my brother in danger.

I stepped back when he appeared right in front of me again. I backed up and groaned as my back made contact with the house. He was glowering down at me, and this time, his fangs were extended, gleaming threateningly underneath the porch light. Now I was afraid.

"Seeing as how I'm well over a thousand years old, I will _not_ take orders from the likes of you. I will do as I please, without your consent," he growled.

"Well no matter what you say, my brother will not be involved under _any_ circumstances," I replied, not backing down a bit. I was pretty sure that he could hear my heart pounding in my chest, so I wasn't sure how effective standing up to him really was.

I was surprised when he smiled, all teeth showing, before responding. "I knew there was something I liked about you."

"Anna?" I heard Chris call before opening the door. Eric had stepped back a few feet, and his fangs were no longer showing. When he stepped outside, Chris looked from me to Eric, walking towards me slowly.

"Is everything okay? I heard you scream," he asked as he cautiously shot Eric glances while he looked at me.

"Yeah. Just carry the food in for me before it gets cold? I'll be there in a second," I replied, putting on my best smile for him. He nodded before grabbing the bags of food and walking back inside, but he made sure to leave the door open.

"Your brother is very protective of you, even though you are his elder. Loyalty is a rare quality to find in humans nowadays," Eric commented, still looking towards the door of my house.

"Fine," I swallowed.

He looked away from the door and back towards me, an eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

"I'll do it, okay? But, I have conditions. And a lot of them."

"The floor's all yours. Name your terms," he smirked.

"First of all, my brother will not be involved under _any _circumstances. He will not be involved in any way, shape or form. Secondly, I am not going to be treated like a dog, or worse, one of your fang bangers. I want to be treated with respect. And no one else, meaning my friends, will be involved in this either. This is my problem, and I want to be the only one who has to deal with it. If you don't agree with those terms, then you can find someone else to do your bidding."

"Your friend was right. You are selfless. You would risk your own life protecting others before yourself. Some would call that courageous. I call it stupid," he stated blandly.

"Well it seems like I don't really have a choice in the matter, now do I?"

"Glad you're finally understanding," he said as he approached me slowly me, and I spoke before he could get to me.

"You also can't bite me."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I can," he smirked.

"If you even try, then the deal is off," I frowned.

"I can take your blood anytime I want…" he continued. I don't think I'll ever get used to his super human speed, because for the third time that night he was right in front of me. However, this time, he had one hand holding the side of my head and the thin scarf that I had on was gone as he buried his head in the crook of my neck, "… like right now."

I held my breath, terrified and glued to the spot. Surely he wouldn't bite me to prove a point. Then again, he is a vampire, and an arrogant one at that. He would do it _just_ to prove a point. He inhaled deeply, taking in my scent as if it was the sweetest fragrance that ever existed.

"Absolutely mouthwatering," he murmured, his warm breath tickling my neck. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself. If my heart was racing, the blood would be flowing quicker, which would only make him want to bite me even more.

"Get off," I whispered, unable to find my voice.

"What's wrong?" he asked, pulling away far enough so that he could see my face, "Am I making you uncomfortable?" he smirked with half lidded eyes, one hand holding onto my waist as the other played with a curl of my hair.

"You won't bite me," I said a bit confidently this time.

"Why is that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Because I have on a silver bracelet and ring, and I won't hesitate to use it."

"I'll have ripped your arm off by the time you lift your hand up."

"Oh, but you wouldn't do that," I smirked.

"You think so?"

"Oh I know so. Because ripping my arm off would cause me to alert the authorities. And I don't think you would want that because it would… how did you put it… 'interrupt whatever peace we have.' I mean after all, 'vampire and human relationships are as precarious as ever right now,' isn't that right?" I smirked, tapping his face with my hand. Okay, maybe I was pushing way too many boundaries at the moment, but my level of irritation was so high, that I couldn't help myself. "I was able to remember every little detail of last nigh. Even the part where I was drugged."

"It won't be hard for me to just kill you."

"Enough people know about you now to know that if something were to happen to me immediately after we met, you would be the one blamed. Besides, where are you going to find another person like me after I'm dead?" I inquired. Yeah, I was safe now. He needed me, therefore, he wasn't going to kill me.

"Don't get cocky," he warned.

"Maybe you should take your own advice," I replied.

He frowned before moving a few feet away from me. It was only when he began punching numbers into a little device that I realized that he had pulled my BlackBerry from my back pocket. By the time I was ready to go off on him, he was already done with whatever he was doing. He tossed the phone back and I caught it before it hit the floor.

"Keep your phone charged and on at all times. I'll contact you when I'm ready for you," he said as he began walking down the steps of my porch. Something popped into my mind and I walked up and spoke before he could disappear.

"What did you do to the vampires that attacked us?" I asked, and he stopped moving. "I heard that woman, Pam, say that they were 'taken care of.' What did she mean?"

"That is none of your concern," he replied immediately. "All you need to know is that their will not be a repeat of last night. It's been taken care of," he said. It wasn't so much the things he said that scared me, but how he said it. It was spoken in such an eerily calm voice that terrified me.

"I'll be seeing you soon," he said before disappearing before my eyes. I swallowed and glanced down at my phone, scrolling through before I found the one change. It wasn't anything drastic, just a simple addition to the contact list. It was under Deandra's name.

Eric Northman

I placed the phone back in my pocket before slowly walking into the house and walking upstairs. I think I heard Chris call my name, but I was to distraught at the moment. The one secret that I had held onto for my entire life (not that I was extremely old or anything) was out in the open. In the hands of a vampire. And now he was going to use in against me. If I didn't help him, it meant that I would be putting Chris and everyone else I cared about in danger. So there was no possible way I could win in this situation.

"Anna. Anna!"

I lifted my head, which was buried in my pillow, and looked up at Chris's worried face. My stomach felt sick when I thought about anything even remotely happening to him.

"Can you please explain what the hell just happened? Why the hell was that vampire here?"

"He knows," I said quietly.

"He… what do you mean he knows? H-h-how could he have found out?" he asked, panicked.

"It doesn't matter anymore. It's too late. If I refuse to help him, then he'll hurt you."

"Help him do what?"

"Does it matter?" I asked, frustrated. "I can't back out because then he's going to hurt you!" I covered my face with my hands and let out a groan. This was terrible, and there was no way to fix the situation. This was one thing that I couldn't make better.

"Look… this is my problem, okay? Not something that you should worry about. So just… leave it alone. I'll handle it, alright?"

He looked at me for a while before nodding his head. I knew that it was probably killing him that I couldn't do anything to help, but that couldn't be changed. It was too late. "Go eat. I need to think," I said and I ushered him out of the room. I slid down to the floor and sat there for the longest time, feeling defeated, which was something that I hated feeling. But any way I cut it, slice it or dice it, I couldn't change anything.

It was official. I was screwed.

_**** Yes, two in one week. This is like a record for me! Damn, I feel like in every chapter, Anna is always getting the short end of the stick. Maybe I should give her some happy times…**_

_**Thank you to the people who reviewed the last chapter, and for those who didn't… What are you waiting for? Press that pretty button and tell me your thoughts on this chapter and the story in general. I would more prefer if you guys told me if I was keeping Eric in character or not. That is my biggest concern. Well, that and keeping you guys entertained.**_

_**I think that's it for now. Rate, review, and be happy!**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**PoisonLipz**_


	7. Date With Death

Two weeks.

That's how long it's been since I had been in contact with any vampire whatsoever. My wounds have been healing pretty well, but I still can't do much of anything for myself, which irritates me extremely. I can't go to the office, I can't go out with my friends. I'm a living, breathing invalid.

The only positive is that I haven't had any reason to run into Eric since the night he showed up at my house. I keep waiting for my phone to ring and to see his number appear on the caller ID, but, thank goodness, that never happens. I'm starting to wonder if he's ever going to call me. Part of me is happy that he's leaving me alone, but the other part keeps me in check and reminds me of what an asshole he is. He'll come in and ruin my life right when I'm enjoying it the most.

I sighed and closed the book that was on my lap, unable to concentrate. Grabbing the remote, I flicked the TV on and tried to find something to watch. There wasn't any good movies on, seeing as how it was the middle of the day, so I settled for the news channels. After a while, even that got to be monotonous. If they weren't talking about vampires, they were talking about the Vampire Rights Amendment. I know that vampires making themselves known to the general public was, and still is a huge thing, but I would like to turn on the television and the radio every now and then just to hear about the weather.

I heard the bell ring downstairs, and I tossed the remote on the bed and grabbed my cardigan that was resting on the edge of my chair before walking out the room and down the stairs. I pulled on the cardigan before opening the door.

"Hey, Hun."

"What's up Dee? You done working already?" I asked as I let her walk in.

"Yeah. I asked Charles for the rest of the day off," she said as I closed the door.

"And he gave it to you? What'd you do to convince him?"

"I told him that you were depressed and needed some company to make you feel better. And you know how much he loves you," she smirked.

"Depressed? Am I really?" I smiled. "What's with the bags?" I asked, gesturing to the brown shopping bags she placed onto my coffee table.

"Well, I convinced Matt, Shawn and Amber to leave work early, so they'll be here soon too. And I intend to do what I came here to do…" she explained as she pulled out a bottle of Smirnoff, "which is make you feel better."

"You intend to make me feel better with alcohol I can't even drink? I can't mix liquor with my pills."

"Which is why I also brought a daiquiri mix, and we can all have _this_ while you have virgin drinks."

"Well that's not fun! I wanna drink too," I chuckled.

"Maybe next time when you don't have to guzzle down a thousand pills," she said as she walked into the kitchen and began setting things up. I joined her and sat on the stool facing where she was working. "By the way, any update on the whole Eric thing?"

"Nope, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"I can't believe he made you tell him about your power. What did you say he did to you? When he hypnotized you?"

"He called it 'glamouring' or something. It's like a strong ass form of hypnosis. Except I didn't want to be hypnotized."

"And you just blurted it out? Even though you knew you shouldn't have?"

"Yup. He had this pull on my mind that I couldn't get out of. It was unbelievable," I shook my head.

"Damn. That's crazy. You know, if he wasn't so much of a arrogant bastard, he'd be a CPA."

"A what?"

"A Certified Piece of Ass."

"Oh god," I groaned as I rolled my eyes.

"No, seriously, all jokes aside. Was I the only one who noticed how sexy he is? Just step away from the bitchy attitude for a moment and focus on the face and the body. Now you look me in the eye and tell me he isn't fine."

"You know, Dee, that was the last thing on my mind when he threatened to bite me and hurt the people that I love! And you have a boyfriend, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think he would like you talking about other guys when he's not around."

"Puh-lease. I can't tell you the amount of times he's talked about celebrities he'd love to get with," she scoffed.

"Wow. What a complex relationship you two have," I smiled. The doorbell rang again, and I got up to answer it. Shawn and Matt had arrived with even more booze, which I, unfortunately, could also not drink. Amber arrived last with some food, and by then, we had already had my living room set up like a bar. When all was done, we all sat around the coffee table and each of us had a shot glass in front of us.

"Okay, first thing before we start, everyone give me your keys," I said, opening my palm. Shawn and Amber gave me their keys, and I looked expectantly at Matt and Dee.

"I'm gonna take a cab home, so I'm good," Matt said.

"I don't plan on drinking that much. I have to go pick up Chris later anyways, right?"

"Right," I nodded, pocketing the other two set of keys. Chris was adamant about me staying home and getting better, so he arranged to have Deandra instead of myself pick him up from work. "Okay then. Who would like to start?"

"I'll go, I'll go," Matt volunteered. "Never have I ever… skinny dipped." I started laughing when Shawn poured some tequila in his glass and guzzled it down.

"Wait, wait. When did you skinny dip?" Amber asked.

"About two years ago when I was trying to get with this girl. She invited me to her house and she suggested that we skinny dip in her parents pool, and I did it, but she didn't, and she told her parents that she didn't know who I was when they caught us. Yeah… she was a bitch," he explained, and we all started laughing.

"Okay, Deandra, would you like to go next?" Shawn asked.

"Alright. Umm… never have I ever snuck into a bar or club."

I smirked and poured out some of the virgin strawberry daiquiri that was on the table. Everyone started 'whooping' as I swallowed it down in one gulp. It was freezing as it slid down my throat, but it felt so good..

"When did you sneak into a club?" Matt asked.

"When I was 17 back in New York. I don't remember what my parents did, but it was my way at getting back at them. It worked. And hey, I had a kick ass time," I shrugged with a smirk.

"Alrighty then. Amber, you go," Dee said.

"Okay. Never have I ever had sex."

"Boo! As if we didn't already know that," Shawn said as he poured out some liquor for himself, Dee and Matt.

"Don't be rude, Shawn," I scolded.

"You have to defend her. You're a virgin too," he said as he chugged the drink.

"There is nothing wrong with saving myself for marriage," Amber shrugged with a smile.

"What about you, Anna? You waiting till you're married?" Matt asked.

"I don't know anymore. I mean…" I paused for a moment so I could think of my answer. "I can't say that I'm gonna wait until marriage for sure, but I am going to wait until I'm certain that I have met the right person. Because, I mean, I've waited this long, I'm not just gonna give it away to anybody."

"How did you get this far though without doing it?" Shawn asked.

"Well, it wasn't intentional. I was going to do it with someone from my past, who I thought I loved, and who I thought loved me back. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work out. Everyone else after that just wasn't… there wasn't any real connection. Long story short, I'm still waiting for that special person."

"Well if you ask me, he lost out big time," Matt replied, and I shot him a small smile.

"Aww, that's so sweet," Amber sighed.

I rolled my eyes with a smile. "Whatever. Who's next?"

"You go, Annie."

"Sure, sure. Never have I ever… done it in public," I smirked. Deandra, Matt and Shawn each filled their glasses, but Shawn filled his with the virgin daiquiri this time. I think that was a wise choice on his part.

"I don't even want to know. Who's next?"

The game went like that for the next three hours. Some questions were personal, but most ended up being either dirty or just hilarious. As we had all predicted, Shawn was the first and only person to pass out. It may have been childish, but we all participated in writing and drawing on his face. Childish, but fun as hell.

_He walked up and gave me a small hug before pulling away and standing before me, a single blue rose in his hand._

"_You look great tonight."_

"_Thanks. And thank you for the flower. It's beautiful. Blue roses are my favorite."_

"_Yeah, your brother might have helped out with that too. He said you were a fan of simplicity," he smiled._

"You okay?"

I came out of my trance and looked at Amber, who was staring at me worriedly while I held the marker in my hand above Shawn's face.

"Yeah. I was just trying to think of what to write," I laughed. She nodded and continued to doodle her little picture. I glanced up at Deandra and she looked at me, mouthing the word 'Vision.' I nodded and continued to doodle on Shawn's face.

The doorbell rang, and I got up to answer it, wondering who it was. I was surprised when I opened it and saw Chris standing there.

"Chris? Your shift isn't over until eleven. How did you-"

"Sam dropped me off. He's outside by his car. I think he wants to talk to you," he said, walking past me and into the house. I stepped outside and saw Sam leaning against his car, arms crossed casually across his chest, waiting expectantly. I narrowed my eyes before closing the door and walking outside. The pavement felt cool against my bare feet as I got to Sam's car.

"Hi. Um, Chris said that you needed to talk about something?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Oh. Well is it about my brother? Has he done something wrong, or…"

"No, no. Your brother's a very good employee, a very good worker. He's a good kid. You should be proud of him."

"Oh. Well thank you. And thank you for bringing him home. I know it's not exactly in your job description to give your employees rides home," I said as I stood in front of him, arms stuffed into the pockets of my gray cardigan.

"It was no problem. It was a slow night and he didn't have much to do, so I just said why not. Besides, I actually wanted to come and see you," he said with a small smile.

My eyebrows rose at this, surprised at how bold he was being. "Really? Well what did you want to see me about?" I smiled as I crossed my arms over my chest. I found it a bit hard to keep focused, because his eyes kept distracting me. Maybe it was just the lighting in that particular spot, but they looked extremely amazing to me. If I wasn't getting lost in his very cute, very southern voice, then I was getting lost in his eyes.

"Well, for starters, I feel like we've seen each other a bunch of times, and I haven't even told you my name. So… I wanted to formally introduce myself," he said as he extended a hand. "I'm Sam Merlotte."

"Anastasia Coletti, but call me Anna," I smiled as I shook his hand.

"Well, Anna, the reason I stopped by is because I wanted to see if you wanted to do something sometime. Maybe grab a bite to eat or something," he said after releasing my hand.

"What, like a date?" I said coyly. _'I guess this explains the vision I had.'_

"I don't know. I guess if you wanna call it that. I mean, if your up for it. I know that you can't really do much until your injuries heal."

"Right. Well… um, the injuries are still kind of bad, but unless we're going to an amusement park or something, which I highly doubt, then I think I'll be fine," I chuckled a bit.

"So is that a yes?" he grinned.

"Yeah. Sure, I'd love to go out with you. Any day is fine for me."

"How about Thursday night around 8? I'll pick you up from here."

"That sounds great. Do you need my number, or…"

"It's fine. Your brother helped me out with that."

"Okay. Well then, I guess I'll see you Thursday night."

"I guess you will," he smiled before turning around and sliding into the driver's seat. He flashed me one more smile before pulling out of the lot and driving away. I turned around to head back into the house, a smile on my face. That got wiped off immediately an d I stopped in my tracks when I saw someone standing in front of my doorway.

"Well wasn't that cute," the woman drawled.

I walked up and approached her, eyes narrowed as I took I her appearance. It was the bouncer from the vampire bar. While I was surprised to see her at my house at all, I think her appearance surprised me more. She wasn't wearing any of the scantily clad leather outfits that I was used to seeing her in. Instead, she wore a pink v-neck shirt and black dress capris with matching pink heels. It was like I was looking at a complete polar opposite.

"You. You're the bouncer from Fangtasia. Pam."

"And you're Anastasia… Eric's new pet," she smirked. I was about to lash out at what she called me, but I had to keep myself in check. She was still a vampire, and she could still easily cause me some kind of physical harm.

"What? No smart remark?"

"Not this time. I know better than to upset a vampire," I replied.

"Is that so? It didn't seem like that a few nights ago," she smirked. "Besides, you're too valuable now, and I'd get in big trouble if I harmed Eric's toy."

"Are you hear for a reason? Other than to annoy me?" I asked with a frown.

"Right. Eric apologizes for not contacting you sooner, but he's had a lot on his plate to deal with over the past couple of weeks."

"Oh, well tell him it's fine. As a matter of fact, just tell him to leave me alone all together. It's not like I was anticipating his call or looking forward to seeing him again or anything," I said sarcastically.

"Huh. He did say you were a smartass," she smirked. "Let's get to the matter at hand, shall we?" she said, and I nodded for her to continue. "Eric wants you to meet him tomorrow night. Here's the address," she said as she fished a piece of paper out of her pocket.

"I know where Fangtasia is," I said.

"That's nice, but you won't me meeting him at Fangtasia."

"Wouldn't it just be easier to go and see him at his bar rather than somewhere else?"

"He said it's precautionary reasons. There's a lot of nosy eyes and ears at Fangtasia. We wouldn't want your secret getting out, now would we?"

I took the paper and looked the address over. I furrowed my brows in confusion, unfamiliar with the place. "I don't know where this is."

"It's an area outside of Shreveport. It's a few miles away from Fangtasia."

"That doesn't help me at all."

"That may be so, but there's a new invention called GPS, honey. Use it," she said as she began walking away. "I do look forward to seeing you tomorrow. It should be interesting. By the way, you need to be there at 1 AM," she concluded before speeding out of my sight. I spun around when I heard the door open.

"Hey, you okay?" Matt asked as he poked his head through the door. "You've been out here for a while."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just talking to Chris's boss," I said as I walked into the house, pocketing the small piece of paper and stepping into the kitchen. It wasn't a complete lie, but Matt didn't know about my secret, and I didn't want him to know about or get involved in anything that had to do with Eric. I stood next to Chris who was in the fridge, looking for something to eat.

"I think I'm going to head off. Shawn needs to get home, and I have a early job to be at tomorrow," Matt said.

"Okay then. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for coming," I said as we gave each other a quick hug. I watched as he walked into the living room and hoisted Shawn off of the ground before making his way towards the door.

"So did you and Sam have a nice little chat?"

I turned around and faced Chris, who had a small smile on his face, despite the fact that he wasn't looking at me. "I did, actually. I'm going out with him Thursday night." He nodded in approval. "You wouldn't have had something to do with that, now would you?"

"I dunno… I may have hinted to him that you're single, which he couldn't believe, and in need of a good time," he shrugged.

"Well thank you, that was very nice of you. I just hope he doesn't disappoint me."

"I work with him everyday, Annie. Trust me, he's a god guy."

"Yeah, well unfortunately, I have a date with death tomorrow," I said in a hushed voice this time.

He turned around and looked at me, face serious now. "Eric?"

I nodded. "I'm supposed to meet him tomorrow night. I'm only telling you in case I don't come home. You know who I was supposed to be with."

"Don't talk like that, Anna. You'll be fine."

"Better safe than sorry, Chris," I said as I walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room. "Where's Amber?" I asked Dee upon seeing the living room empty.

"She's in the bathroom. You okay?" she asked when she looked up from her cell phone at me.

"I'll tell you about it later," I said as Amber made her way back downstairs.

"This was a lot of fun. I love when we do these things," she said happily. "I wish I could stay, but I have to be up early tomorrow. My parents are gonna kill me if I miss the special presentation at the church," she explained as she grabbed her belongings.

"What's so special about it?" I asked.

"This preacher from Dallas is coming to visit and he's gonna talk to our church group all day. It's kind of like a religious workshop. Hey, since you're not doing anything, you should come with me. I'll even pick you up."

"I don't…" I shook my head, dismissing the idea. I had no problem with God and the church, but it just wasn't something I would look forward to doing. I can't even remember the last time I stepped foot in the House of God.

"Come on, Anna. It'll be so much fun. And enlightening."

"I don't think so, Amber."

"Okay, tell you what. Just think about it, and I'll call you in the morning. I have to go but I would really like for you to come!" she smiled as she walked out the door.

"That girl is too religious for her own good," Dee commented.

"You're telling me," I sighed as I sat down on my couch.

"You gonna go?"

"Probably not. I have too much shit on my plate already."

"Like what?"

"You have time to kill?"

"Of course," she smirked.

"You want the good news or the bad news first?" I smiled wryly.

"Oh no. Give me the bad news straight up doc," she sighed as she took a seat next to me. One of the many things I loved about Deandra was her ability to listen to all my problems and help me in any way she could. And right now was when I needed her the most because at this point in my life,

I had a shit load of problems.


	8. Lost Girl

Why I agreed to go to this seminar/workshop thing with Amber, I'll never know.

We got to the Holy Grove Church at around eleven in the morning. Everyone I saw looked so spiritual and holy, if that makes any sense. In how they dressed, in how they walked, just their facial expressions alone screamed "Holy." It may have been stupid and irrational, but I couldn't help but feel completely out of place with all these other religious people. I could not stand there and call myself religious. I had no semblance of religious fervor in my body whatsoever. I couldn't even remember the last time I went to confession, received the Eucharist, or even walked inside of a religious establishment. I could be a religious person if I actually tried, but it just wasn't in me. Don't get me wrong, I loved God and Jesus and everything, but I was not as dedicated as most people were.

As we walked in, I felt as if people were staring at me the entire time. It was as if they could feel the essence of my unholiness permeating the clean aura of the room. I walked in, nonetheless, and dipped my fingers in the holy water and proceeded to make the sign of the cross on my forehead. Amber and I met up with her very enthusiastic parents, who had arrived a little over 20 minutes ago. They were nice and inviting, and they were happy that I had decided to come along. I think her father said something along the lines of "It's always nice to have a new recruit in Jesus' army." Yeah, that didn't sound creepy at all.

The first hour consisted of a regular mass. My attention was in and out the entire time. I was mostly focusing on cooling myself with the fan that I had been given upon entering the church. It was extremely hot inside, and the fact that the doors were closed and there was no indoor ventilation or air conditioner was making the air thick and hard to breathe.

After the mass, the preacher from Dallas came up and talked for what seemed like forever. His name was Theodore Newlin, and if you ask me, reverend was not the title that he deserved. It didn't fit him at all. Activist was the more proper term. He spent the first couple of minutes reading a excerpt from the gospel, then he went on to talk about the good and evil that exists in our world. In other words, he praised the human race and spent the rest of the time explaining why vampires do not deserve to live among us. What got me even more was that every single person in there was agreeing wholeheartedly with him. And it's not even like I could agree with some of the shit he was spewing out of his mouth. I don't like the idea of vampires living with us as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them 'Spawns of Satan." That seemed a bit extreme.

After he was done with his lengthy speech, we all left and walked over to the dining hall that was right by the church. Inside they had a whole buffet lunch prepared for everyone. I sat with Amber and her parents while I ate my tiny sandwiches. They were talking about the whole sermon and I didn't have anything to contribute, so I settled on tuning them out while I finished my food.

When her parents did ask my opinion on the sermon, however, I simply said "It was very fulfilling." That was probably the wrong thing to say because then they decided to talk directly to me and preach the 'wonderful' word of the Reverend. I seriously have no idea what possessed me to come here.

When I was done with my food, I excused myself from the table and walked over to the drink table to get some water. I turned around and contemplated rejoining them at the table, but decided against it without any hesitation. Instead, I walked outside to the front of the building.

After closing the door, I fished my pain killers out of my tote bag and popped two in my mouth. I swallowed them both before rinsing it down with the water. I let out a sigh and replaced the pills in my bag. Leaning forward, I rested my palms on the wooden railing and enjoyed the fresh air.

"Everything alright?"

I spun around and came face to face with one of the men from inside. His face looked familiar. I had seen him around a lot today. It wasn't until now that I took notice to the fact that he was dressed in a suit and tie.

"Man, and I thought I was dressed up," I joked as I gestured to my dark blue panel dress.

"Well, we all want to look our best in the eyes of the Lord," he preached. I gave him a skeptical look and couldn't help the scoff that came out of my mouth. "What?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Nothing. It's… I dunno. This whole thing just isn't me," I shrugged.

"God isn't your 'thing?'" he questioned.

"No, just this. Dressing up to listen to preachers and sermons and shit. Don't get me wrong, I believe in God. I had my sacraments done. I did reconciliation and communion and confirmation. But in all honesty I haven't stepped in a church for years now. It's been a hard life and a lot of hard work, and after today's intense session, I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to come back to God just yet," I explained.

"Well, there's no rush to come back to the Lord. You just need to take some time alone in the desert and find out who you are. And when you come back, believe me when I say God will open his arms for you," he promised as he rested a hand on my shoulder.

"Well, I'll be expecting a warm welcome when I come out of the desert," I smiled, and he let out a little chuckle.

"I should get going," I muttered to myself.

"You're not gonna stay for the rest?" he asked eagerly.

"Nope. I've had plenty of enlightenment for one day. But I'll be back some other time. You have my word on that."

"Well, I'll see you to it," he nodded. It was nice meeting you Miss…"

"Anastasia Coletti."

"Steve Newlin. Pleasure to meet you Miss Coletti," he shook my had before giving me a final nod and returning inside.

I sighed before pulling my phone out of my bag and dialing the number for a cab.

'_One down, one to go.'_

It took about forty-five minutes for the cab to get me back home, and I had plenty of time to kill. I took a nap for a few hours, ate some food, and since I had nothing better to do, I started looking for an outfit that I was going to wear on my date with Sam tomorrow. Despite all the things that were going on in my life at the moment, that was the one thing that I couldn't wait for. I felt like a teenager in high school who just got a date with her crush. Sam, from what I've seen so far, is dependable, kind, caring and sweet. And not to mention he was sexy as hell. Yeah, that just made everything better.

Of course, all the fun and games couldn't last forever, and the meeting Eric had so _kindly_ arranged tonight wandered back into my mind. I did have a useful vision in the midst of all the sulking, and I was able to see that whatever he wanted to do with me was going to take place in what looked like an old run down warehouse. I wanted to just get it over with and be done with him, so I left the house towards the location at half past eleven. By the time I got there, it was way past 12, and a little close to being one. At first I thought my GPS was broken, because it left me on the side of a lonely street. However, I wasn't at all aware of the area, so I decided to stay put until someone came for me.

I sat in the car anxious for a while before I decided to get out and stretch my legs a little. I walked around the car for what seemed like a million times. Every time I saw a light from a car, I would stand still and wait for someone to come driving down that way, but they would always turn at the last minute. I was basically walking back and forth looking down each side of the road for what seemed like forever.

I turned around to look down the other side of the road again, but couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped my lips as I collided with something that had appeared in front of me. Looking up now, I realized that it was Eric, his dark clothing clad self staring down at me with his piercing blue eyes.

"Oh my God," I breathed as I leaned over the hood of my truck, a hand on my chest as it tried to steady my rapidly beating heart.

"Right on time. And look at that, you even got all dressed up for me," he said in that condescending voice I despised with a fierce passion.

"Okay. There is a thing called personal space. I just so happen to enjoy mine, so maybe you should back up a few feet," I sighed angrily as I moved to the other side of the car. "And trust me, I didn't get dressed up for you. You're definitely not worth it," I sighed, muttering the last part under my breath.

"I would have…" he began as he slowly walked around the truck, ignoring my latter comment and placing himself back beside me, "but your scent was so appealing that I just couldn't move away," he smirked.

I couldn't help but scoff and roll my eyes. If that was his attempt to flatter me, it wasn't working one bit. "What do you want from me? It's late and I want to go home. I don't have time for your bullshit."

"Is that so? This is relatively early for me. I think it would be safe to say that I have all the time in the world," he grinned.

"I saw a warehouse," I announced, causing him to narrow his eyes. "In my vision. I know that's where we're supposed to be going. I just don't know why."

"Well, that's _one _point for you, I guess."

"Must you always put on the front of an egotistical narcissistic a-hole?"

Before I could blink, he had already appeared in front of me. This time around, I was already somewhat used to his super vampire speed, so it didn't surprise me as much as I thought it would. However, it didn't stop me from backing up into the car when he was staring me down. I stared right back at him, not backing down.

"I left my brother with the address and everything. If I don't show up at home by morning, I told him to tell the cops that you're responsible," I said confidently.

"I find you very odd. Most people would be terrified to be in such close proximity to a vampire, especially at this time of night while out in the middle of nowhere," he announced as he played with the ends of my hair, something that he seemed to like doing whenever he got the chance. "And yet your heart is beating at a normal pace. Care to enlighten me?"

"People are afraid of what they don't know and don't understand. I have no reason to be," I replied slowly.

"Is that so?" he smirked.

"Yes. I know what you are: a vampire. And I understand why you do what you do. It's because you have no other choice. Your means of survival involves you feeding on the blood of human beings. Of course there is the Tru Blood drink, a substitute for human blood, but I can only imagine that it's our equivalent of tofu. It fills you up, but it's nowhere near satisfying as the real thing. The hunger inside you would never be satiated if you lived on it." I watched as a small smile made its way on his lips as he cocked his head slightly to the side. "See? I understand why you all do what you do. I don't like it, and I don't agree with it, but I have to accept it and live with it," I shrugged.

"You are very refreshing to talk to… which is much more than I can say for many of your kind. You are a lot wiser than I first took you for."

"You can't insult me and then compliment me in the same sentence, because the only thing I hear is the insult," I replied, slapping his hand away from my hair. Unfortunately, he caught my hand and held it, raising it up in the air high enough so that I couldn't do much of anything. In the process, I let out a small groan from the discomfort it caused my ribs. I'm pretty sure he was doing it on purpose in order to keep me from fighting back.

All I could do at that moment was glare at him as a small smirk appeared on his lips. My eyes narrowed as I watched his eyes leave my face and stop at my chest. With his free hand, he placed his fingers on the side of my neck, slowly trailing it down to my collar bone. I tried squirming when he began down the center of my chest, but calmed down when he stopped at my pendant that dangled a little above my cleavage.

"Where did you get this?"

"None of your business. It's personal." Something struck me in my mind, and I immediately shut my eyes, in fear that he would glamour me again.

"What are you doing?"

"When I said it's personal, I mean it's _personal_ and I don't want you snooping into my brain to find out what it is."

I heard him chuckle before releasing my raised arm and my pendant in one motion. I sighed in relief and rubbed my torso before rubbing my wrist and arm.

"Get in the car," he said as he walked around and made himself comfortable in my passenger's seat.

"Excuse me?"

"Pam is waiting for us, and we need to get moving. Since it is your car, I assumed that you would want to drive. Now get in. Unless, of course, you want me to bring you in here myself."

I glared at him for a few more seconds before placing myself behind the wheel. I slammed the door shut and fastened my seatbelt before shifting into drive and flooring it down the deserted road. I was in no position to argue with a vampire.

I swallowed and closed my eyes for a second, trying to compose myself. I was driving in a car with a dangerous vampire that could drain me in a matter a seconds. And I couldn't escape. When did my life become so damn complicated?

Reopening my eyes, I swallowed and focused my attention on the road. What I couldn't help but notice from my peripherals was that Eric had taken to staring at me the entire time.

"What?" I asked, frustrated.

"What is it? You don't like me looking at you?" he asked as he placed his folded arms on the top of the back of my seat and placed his head on them. Now he was extra close. So close that I could faintly feel his breath hit the side of my cheek. It made me curious as to why he was breathing at all, seeing as how he didn't need to.

"Not particularly, no," I replied angrily. As we got farther, I could begin making out the faint outline of what looked like the warehouse that I had seen in my vision.

"Well, you can't blame me, can you? You are appealing to _almost _all the senses. I can only imagine how deliciously intoxicating you must taste," he smiled, whispering the last part in my ear. My hands tightened on the wheel at the implication, and I couldn't help the faint shiver that ran up my spine, and I proceeded to slam on the break of the car when we were close enough to the entrance of the old, disheveled looking building.

I released my grip on the steering wheel and turned around to face him, only a few inches separating our faces. He had a lazy smirk on his face as he studied me. "Don't do that." That was all I could muster. I wasn't going to let him get under my skin. It was all a game to him, and I wasn't playing.

Before he could respond, I opened my door and walked out of the car, making my way towards the entrance of the warehouse. I shook my head, trying to regain my composure as Eric made his way next to me. I avoided his gaze as he walked up to the large wooden doors. He broke open the lock that was connected to the chain that was keeping the doors shut and pulled the chains off, letting them fall to the ground. He slid the doors open and stood halfway in before turning around to face me.

"Ladies first," he smirked. I rolled my eyes before walking inside. I didn't wander too far because it was pitch black inside and I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face. That and the fact that I still didn't trust Eric at all.

"Pam. Lights."

In an instant, I had to squint and shield my eyes with my hands as the entire place was engulfed in the brightness of the florescent lights. After a minute, my eyes adjusted and I could make out the interior of the warehouse. It was old and rundown inside, and it had me wondering why it hadn't been knocked down already or used for something else. There were a few empty boxes lying in the corners and some barrels here and there, but there was nothing else.

"Okay. We're here. Now what?"

"Impatient, aren't we?" Eric said as he walked past me and made his way further inside. "Pam, bring him out."

When he said that, Pam had appeared from a door that was further inside the building with another person in tow. She walked over to us quickly and dropped them in front of Eric. From where I was standing, I could tell that the person was male.

What I could notice clearly was that this person was terrified out of their mind. They were shaking uncontrollably and hadn't even dared to look anyone in the eye yet.

"This man," Eric began, "ha been involved in some very illegal actions recently. For the past few months, he has been selling Vampire Blood throughout all of Louisiana. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Anastasia," he said as he finally looked at me for the first time since he began talking, "but Vampire Blood is a very illegal drug. Consider it your species' LSD, but multiplied a thousand times.

"After thinking this through for a long time and hearing him beg for forgiveness, I am considering letting him off the hook. He had given me his word to never sell again, and he as even offered to help me discover the identities of other dealers in my Area, but, I'm not entirely sure he'll keep his word."

"Which is where you come in," Pam finished.

"You want me to see if he'll keep true to his word," I responded quietly.

"If you don't mind," Eric replied.

I didn't like this. I didn't like that the fate of this boy's life was lying in my hands. This was wrong. This was sick. Twisted. Fucked up.

I swallowed and shook my head before walking in front of the boy and carefully crouching down to his level. I wanted to take him in my arms and hug him. He was terrified. He shouldn't be here.

I slowly reached my hand out and gently touched both sides of his face with the palms of my hands. "What are you doing?" Eric asked.

"The visions come out a lot clearer and much more vivid if I have some physical contact," I explained. I gently lifted his face to look at me, and after staring into his dark brown eyes for a few seconds, a realization dawned upon me.

"You're… a vampire," I breathed.

"That's correct. The twist in the story is that he was selling his own blood. Disgrace," Eric sneered from behind me.

"Are you going to help me?" the young man asked in a minuscule voice, terrified. He couldn't have been older than me. He was probably a few years younger than myself, give or take the vampire years.

"I'm going to try," I half smiled. "I just need you to stay calm and relax…." I trailed as I began focusing on the person I front of me. Eric wasn't with me. Pam wasn't with me. It was just me and him…

_A needle was inside the arm of a young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties or his very late teens, but one thing was sure: he was a very young man. His brown eyes followed the tube that was connected to the needle and the blood bag. His fist, which had been contracting while he was sitting down, had ceased and he plucked the needle out of his arm effortlessly. He watched as the miniscule hole in his arm healed at a fast rate and disappear as if nothing had happened._

_He finished tying up the blood bag and sealed it tightly, carrying it inside his jacket. He left the basement of the house he was staying in and walked outside. Using his super speed, he found himself in the meeting spot that he had grown accustomed to. Within a few minutes, a human had approached him with a bundle of money in his hand. They made the trade and both men left the spot happy with the profit they made. He didn't understand the human beings' fascination with his blood, but he wasn't one to complain. If it meant that he could keep living the way he has been, then he could care less._

_He couldn't believe that the Sheriff of Area 5 had actually decided to let him go. What a fool he was. Why would he stop something that was going so well? He would just have to be much more careful and much craftier that he was before._

I let out a breath that I was holding after I released the head of the young man. I doubled over on the floor, trying desperately to catch my breath.

I wasn't sure what had just happened, but I had never had a vision like that before. Everything was enhanced extremely. I felt the same emotions, the same feelings, the same thoughts and actions, everything. I rubbed the crook of my arm, still feeling the sharp sting of where the needle should have been.

"I'm assuming it was too much for you to take all at once?" Eric asked.

"I… it was stronger this time. Stronger than it's ever been. None of my visions have ever been so clear and distinct. I've never looked into a vampire's future before," I explained as I slowly stood up off the ground and regained my composure. I steadied my breathing and tried to calm down.

"So, what's the verdict?" Pam asked.

I didn't answer. I looked to the guy on the ground as he stared up at me with pleading eyes, practically begging me to show him mercy. I quickly shot Eric a glance, and I immediately wished that I hadn't. From that one look, he knew. He gave Pam a nod and she grabbed the man from the back of his neck and began walking towards the back of the warehouse. I could hear his protests and his screams, and the farther away from me they got, the louder his screams were.

I instinctively began walking in the direction that Pam had walked in, desperate to help this man, but Eric grabbed me by the arm before I had the chance. I struggled as best as I could, but there was no point in even trying. He released my hand when we got outside and began walking back towards my car, and I ran in front of him and caused him to stop.

"What is this?"

"Please don't do this. Don't kill him, Eric," I pleaded.

"And why not?"

"My visions are subjective. Everything that I see isn't necessarily set in stone. I can change it. I can help him. He doesn't have to die."

"Why would you put your life in jeopardy for someone that you don't even know?"

"Because it'll make me feel a lot better knowing that I helped him live instead of die," I replied fiercely. "Please. He's young and immature and doesn't know how else to live. He just needs some help. Some time. He needs someone to steer him towards the right path. He looks like he was just turned. How was he supposed to know what to do and what not to do?"

"He's a grown man, not a toddler. He knows that vampire blood is illegal, and yet he sells his own blood for a profit."

"But-"

"It's a waste of time and effort to try and save someone not worth saving. I don't have time for it," he said, waving me off. That got to me.

"How the fuck can you be so heartless? This isn't just some dust in the wind. This is a life! How can you just disregard it like it's worthless? Everyone's life is worth something. At least give him a second chance to redeem himself!"

"You're definitely one to lecture me on the value of life," he growled menacingly. I looked at him, confused.

"What are you-"

"You're telling me that I disregard the life of a vampire that would have committed crimes if I let him go. Yet you walk into your office everyday, going over who you're going to send to jail next. Are those lives being valued? Those men and women that you help sentence to various numbers of years in prison have done unspeakable crimes, and yet you don't hesitate to throw those people away for what could be the rest of their lives. Where's their 'second chance?'"

"No. That's… not the same," I shook my head. How could he compare what he was doing with what I do? It was preposterous to even try and put us into the same group together.

"I'm doing him a favor by ending his life. It will be quick and easy. If I left it up to other people, he would be suffering a far greater punishment as we speak. Some people rather die than live the rest of their years inside a metal box. Have you ever considered that?"

I didn't know how to respond. I was at a loss for words.

"Before you judge, maybe you should try and see that we're not that much different from-"

"Do not," I warned him. "Do not even think about comparing us to each other. I am nothing like you. _You're a monster_," I spat.

"If it'll help you sleep tonight, then fine," he replied patronizingly. "I'm a monster."

I shook my head and headed towards my car. I didn't look back. Even thought the tears were clouding my vision, I didn't stop until I got home. I pulled into the driveway and turned off the car before resting my forehead on the steering wheel. I was breathing extremely heavily at this point. I was at a loss. Was this what he was going to use me for every time he wanted me? Was I going to condemn another person to death every time? The thought alone made me sick to my stomach.

I couldn't take this anymore.

**Hi. So, I'm very sorry for the lateness of this chapter. This was in the works for such a long time, and I was going through a lot of things in my life, and I kind of lost the inspiration to write. I got it back, thought, and I really do want to continue this story.**

**It is a lot to ask considering the circumstances, but I would love if you guys would rate and review. I need to know that some people are still reading so that I can continue.**

**I am going to try and keep at a steady rate and get a chapter out every week or so. I think that's it. Are you guys ready for June 26? It's so close, yet so far away. God I can't wait!**

**Sincerely,**

**PoisonLipz**


	9. Unlucky

_Kind of a filler chapter, but a lot of important info in here. So, enjoy._

"He compared what we do to what he did?" Deandra asked as she sat on my bed, hugging her legs to her chest.

"Yup.," I said as I wrapped a section of my hair around the curling iron that was in my hand.

"That's crazy talk. Just because we persecute those that deserve it doesn't make us the same as him. He killed a man without giving him another chance to redeem himself. First of all, we try and make sure that the person is truly guilty before we carry on with a case. Then, if they are, we always try to make plea deals and plea bargains with them in exchange for something else. We're not killing anyone. We punish them for what they did and hope that they are rehabilitated. Bringing justice to those that deserve it is not the same as killing someone as punishment."

"Thank you. I just needed to hear it from someone else. I couldn't sleep much last night because I kept trying to prove to myself that what he said wasn't true."

"He's just trying to get to you. I don't know why he does it, but he seems like the kind that'll just get under your skin for no apparent reason. We wants to unnerve you."

"Maybe," I replied quietly as I placed the curling iron on my table and shook my head around, making the curls come together more. "Should I do half up half down, or just all down?" I asked as I played with my hair, turning my head around every which way and trying to find an acceptable hairstyle.

"How about…" Dee said as she hopped off the bed and stood behind me, tapping my hands away from my head and replacing them with her own, "… you sweep some to the side, so it's covering your eyes a little, and then leave the rest down your back. It'll give you that sexy smoldering look. You're southern beau will love it," she said in a sing-song voice.

I smiled at my reflection after she was done. I loved the look. It was soft and sexy at the same time. "Okay," I said as I stood up from in front of my vanity and lifted the two hangers that were laying on my bed. "Which one? This," I said as I dangled a corset like purple top in my right hand, "or this?" I asked as I dangled a red and black silk blouse in the other hand.

"The corset. Definitely the corset. But you have to wear your leather jacket with it, then it'll be complete."

I nodded and placed the red top on the bed before slipping on the purple top and hooking the sides together. "What are you up to tonight?"

"Well, after Austin finishes work, we're go have dinner somewhere special. He said it's somewhere I've never been before, so I'm super excited," she giggled.

"Well I want to hear about that tomorrow," I smiled as I looked myself over in the mirror before walking over to my closet and pulling out a pair of black gold buttoned suede booties.

"Please. I want to hear about _your _night tomorrow," she said as she plopped back down on my bed and continued watching me. "Oh my God. You're wearing the black suede Christian Louboutin ankle boots? Damn, this guy must be something, huh?"

"Shut up," I said, giving her a playful shove. I sat on the edge of my bed and began slipping the heels on my feet. "I just want to look nice. I haven't been on a date in months, and this guy seems really nice. Like, genuinely nice. I just want to make sure it's all perfect," I smiled after I was done putting on my shoes. I looked up when I heard the doorbell ring, and I turned towards Deandra, putting a puppy dog face on. She rolled her eyes before she stood up and walked towards the door.

"I'll get it," she sighed dramatically.

"I love you!" I smiled before returning o the mirror and finishing up the last touches.

Deandra walked downstairs quickly and stopped in front of the door. She carefully moved the curtain and peeked outside so she could see who Anna's date was. She saw a man dressed in a long sleeved blue shirt, a pair of blue jeans and black boots. He looked very handsome, and he cleaned up very nice, compared to some of the people she had seen in Louisiana. He held a blue rose in his hand and Dee nodded her head in approval.

"Nice touch," she assessed to herself quietly. She stood up and fixed the curtain before pulling the door open. She watched as the blue eyes man stared back at her, awareness flashing in his eyes.

"You're Anna's friend. Deandra, right?"

"Wow, surprised you even remembered my name," she smiled, extending her hand for him to shake. "And you're Sam Merlotte."

"Yeah, that's me," he smiled.

"Come on in. Anna's almost done. You can wait in the living room," Dee said as she allowed him to walk in. She closed the door and watched him stroll just outside of the living room, seemingly afraid to pass any boundaries.

"So Samuel," Dee began, her hands crossed behind her back as she walked in front of him. "Anna is a very good friend of mine. I'd practically call her my sister. So let me warn you right now. You hurt her, and I will personally castrate you and hide the evidence. And I'm a lawyer. I can make it happen," she said, tapping his shoulder and watching as his face changed instantly to one of worry. Both of them averted their gaze from each other when they heard the door upstairs close as footsteps began descending down the stairs.

"Hi," I smiled when I got down the stairs and finally came face to face with Sam. He was dressed like me, dressy, but casual at the same time. I inwardly sighed, glad that I chose the perfect thing to wear.

"You look amazing," he said quietly as he left Dee's side and approached me. He handed me a single blue rose, and I was already awarding him points in my mind.

"Thanks. And thank you for the flower. It's beautiful. Blue roses are my favorite."

"Yeah, your brother might have helped out with that too. He said you were a fan of simplicity," he smiled.

"Well, you kids should get going," Dee said as she walked over, grabbed us by the shoulder and lead us towards the door. "Make sure you two behave," she joked, "and I expect her back here at a reasonable time," she pointed at Sam, and he nodded.

"When are you leaving?" I asked.

"I might just chill here for an hour or two. I'll pick up Chris when the time comes, then I'll be out."

"Okay, just make sure to lock up and everything before you leave," I said as I opened the door and began walking outside with Sam.

"No problem. Have fun, girl. You deserve it," she smiled before turning back into the house and closing the door.

"She's quite the character, isn't she?" Sam laughed. I just shrugged my shoulders with a smile before walking down the path towards his blue car. He made sure he opened my door before I had a chance to and waited for me to sit before walking over to his side. Oh yeah, he was definitely doing good so far.

"So," he said as he started driving off, "I've been trying to place your accent ever since we first met, and I can't figure it out," he said.

"It's a natural born New Yorker accent. I've lived there for most of my life," I replied.

"I like it. It's different and cute," he stated.

"I like your accent better. There's something about it that's just…. I don't know," I smiled, playing with the petals of the rose I still held in my hand.

We idly chatted up until we got to the restaurant, which was a very classy but not overly done place. We sat in the back, where it was dark enough and quiet enough to set a romantic atmosphere. He ordered the food shortly after we arrived, and once we started eating, we began conversing more and more.

"So you're from New York. Of all the places in the world, I can only wonder why anyone would come to such a fucked up backwards town as this," he said, making me cover my mouth with my hand in fear that the food I was chewing on was gonna splatter all over the table.

"First of all," I said in between chews, "There is nothing wrong with Monroe. You can hate Bon Temps all you want, but don't diss my city," I smiled as I swallowed the last bit of food in my mouth. "And second, it's a really long story."

"Well, we've got plenty of time," he shrugged as he continued eating.

"Umm, ok," I said as I took sip of my water before I began talking again. "Ok. So… when I was nine years old, my parents were killed in a car accident. They were coming back home from a date, and they got hit by a drunk driver."

"I'm sorry," Sam said apologetically.

"It's fine. Umm, so, a few months after their funeral and everything, Children's Services came and took me and Chris away. Even though we were staying with our aunt, they deemed her not suitable to care for us because she was too young. She had just turned 19, and she was living on her own, with the help of her parents. They said that since she couldn't even support herself, how could she take care of two little kids," I explained as I picked up a piece of steak and put it in my mouth.

"So they put you and your brother in the system?" he asked.

"Yup. We were in there for a while. About two months. The thing was that they separated Chris and me. For like, a month. I remember crying and begging them to either leave him with me, or take me with him, but they refused. So then another family came to adopt _me_, and I told them that I wasn't going to leave unless I had my brother with me. So, they took him away from the other family, who they realized weren't even fit to take care of Chris, and he got to come with me."

"How did you get them to listen to you? I mean, no offence, but you were only a child."

"There was someone in there that helped me. Her name was Christen Garcia. She saw how messed up I was when Chris left, and she took a liking to me. She helped me and made them give him back. I think she said she would sue if they didn't because separating two of us would psychologically damage us both, especially Chris. He was three at the time and he had just lost his parents. They couldn't make him lose his last family member too. She was nice. She was the only person I could trust at that point.

"So, they made me and Chris stay together, and we got adopted by this very wealthy family. I didn't have enough sense to connect all the dots when I was smaller, but I always wondered why they adopted us. They weren't infertile or anything. They had two other kids already. Little did I know it was all just a stunt to make them look better. They were one of those bullshit philanthropic families. I remember when I was 15, I asked my adoptive mother why they adopted us, and she said something along the lines of 'we looked like the perfect children. We were young, adorable, and it would make them look a lot better to the community and the city if they adopted us. She said it was the perfect story: two kids who lost their parents in a horrific accident were given a second chance in life. Basically, us getting adopted by them was our 'second chance.' So that's all it was. A publicity stunt. I would have rather stayed in a foster home filled with a whole bunch of kids for the rest of my life than stay with those people. I hated it so much, and Chris did too. People think that money and clothes and toys and presents and a big house makes people happy. It doesn't.

"People assumed that we had everything, but we didn't have real parents that loved us. These people didn't love us, and they didn't try and hide it. Their _real_ kids got all the love, and we got the short end of the stick. We didn't get the same privileges their real children got. We were basically prisoners in that house for a long time. The only place we could really go was school. Unless it was a family outing, you would never see us outside. I was small and scared and confused, so I obeyed their rules. I was never a rule breaker. I never liked getting into trouble. It wasn't until high school came around that I actually became more rebellious.

"It wasn't all bad, though. Thanks to wonderful connections the family had all over the city, I was able to get a really good paying job in my Sophomore year of high school. So that gave me a little more freedom too. It was at that point that I came up with the idea. I started saving up all my money. I got a bank account and everything and I didn't spend any of the money that I made. I did extra good in school. I joined clubs and activities and everything. I did everything to make my resume look amazing. I decided that I wasn't going to go to college in New York. Why would I want to be anywhere near the people that have been making my life a living hell for another four or five years?"

"Which is where Louisiana came in," Sam stated.

"Exactly. I didn't want to go so far as leave the US just yet, but I wanted to move far away from New York. I applied to the best college in Louisiana, and I got in with a full scholarship, which was great. I had enough money to hold me for a while. And once I turned 18 and was ready to leave, I was gonna bring Chris with me. That was the plan," I smiled, and I shook my head, she smile slowly fading off my face.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"When you turn 18, you're considered an adult. That's why I wasn't worried when the time came for me to ask for custody of Chris. I was a blood relative, and I was old enough, and I was able to support myself and him, so it should have been okay. However, my plan didn't sit too well with my darling adoptive parents. They wouldn't make me take him with me. They went to court and fought over custody of Chris, and they won. I have no doubt that there was money and bribes involved, but that's another story."

"But if they didn't care about you guys to begin with, why go through all that trouble?"

"Because it would make them look bad if both the kids they went through so much trouble to adopt _both _left. They couldn't stop me from leaving, but they could stop me from taking Chris with me. The court said that since Chris was in no potential danger, was well taken care of, and legally belonged to them, that I couldn't take him."

"So that's why you just got him back," Sam stated, realizing how it all fit together.

"Yup. I had half a mind to not come leave New York anymore, and they knew that, and Chris knew that. But he told me to go. He told me to go and get a head start, and that we would be together before I knew it. He would turn 18, and he would come out here and come live with me. So, I listened to him. I came here, worked my ass of in school, got a job, got my Master's in Criminal Justice, and here I am now. I'm the best lawyer in Monroe.

"I'm not gonna lie and say it wasn't hard. The work was hard enough, but I was lonely, scared, and lost. I had more than a few moments when I was ready to give up. But I reminded myself that giving up meant going back to _them, _which was out of the question. I had to tell myself that I was doing it not only for myself and Chris, but for my Mom and Dad too."

"Wow. You've definitely had a rough life," he said, shaking his head.

"I guess. I mean obviously there are people that have dealt with worse and would see my life as amazing, but no one really understands how it felt to be in that position. That's why I don't publicize my past. I don't want pity or remorse. I want to be able to say, 'I got here because of me, not because someone else felt bad for me.'

"Why did you decide to become a lawyer?"

"Because of so many reasons. One reason is because of my parents' death. The drunk driver that hit them didn't get any time. They let him walk. I think they said that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that he did it, even though his car was totaled and it corresponded with my parents' car completely. Another reason would be the whole custody battle that I had to go through. I'm just tired of having to deal with injustice and dirty people, which is why I take my job so seriously. I was always interested in law and criminal justice, cut being a lawyer never really crossed my mind until I experienced the injustice firsthand. I always thought I would be a journalist or something, but I like my job. I think my parents are the driving force that inspired me to do it. I'd like to think that if they were here today, they'd be proud of me," I shrugged, looking down.

"Hey," Sam said grabbing my hand, causing me to look back up in surprise. "I'm pretty sure that your Mom and Dad are looking down right now, smiling at each other and saying, 'Damn, we really did a good job with this one right here," he said nodding towards me, a smile plastered on his face. I felt my cheeks getting warm, and all I could do at that moment was smile.

"Thanks, Sam."

The conversation switched to him, and he took the opportunity to tell me about where he came from, how he was also adopted, and how he worked and opened up his own restaurant. Some of the details were sketchy, and he knew it, but I didn't pry anything out of him. I knew better than anyone that some things were supposed to be kept to yourself.

When it was time to leave the restaurant, we both took a quick bathroom break before we left. When I was done, I walked out the bathroom door back out to the main room. I searched the place for Sam, but found that we wasn't back yet. I leaned back against one of the walls, looking over the people in the restaurant. My eyes stopped as they came across a familiar face. The man had dark, spiky hair and dark brown eyes.

My eyes widened as I got a better look. It wasn't him, but the person I was looking at looked identical to the person I saw last night. The vampire that I had helped Eric kill. My breathing became shallow and I was finding it very hard to stand. I placed a hand on the wall to support myself. I watched at the man changed to the vampire that I saw last night. He was no longer in his nicely dressed clothes, but now in a tattered pair of jeans without a shirt or any shoes on his feet.

I felt a wave of nausea wash over me, and I could slowly feel myself falling backwards. Luckily, someone was behind me and came in just the right time to stop me from falling. I felt as the hands wrapped around my waist and try to steady me against the wall. Their position changed, and now they were in front of me, holding me up. I grabbed onto their arms, trying to support myself someway.

"Anna? Anna, what's wrong?" I heard Sam asked frantically. I shook my head, trying to figure things out. I was out of it. I felt his warm hand come in contact with my face, trying to get me to look at him. I looked him in the eyes, watching as his eyes got more scared and worried as seconds passed by.

"Talk to me, Anna. Tell me what's wrong."

I tried to talk, but I couldn't form any words. My mistake was glancing back at the vampire look-alike, because now when I looked at him, all I could hear anymore was the terrifying screams…

"_Are you going to help me?" the young man asked in a minuscule voice, terrified. He couldn't have been older than me. He was probably a few years younger than myself, give or take the vampire years._

"_I'm going to try," I half smiled. "I just need you to stay calm and relax…." I trailed as I began focusing on the person I front of me. Eric wasn't with me. Pam wasn't with me. It was just me and him…_

**A needle was inside the arm of a young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties or his very late teens, but one thing was sure: he was a very young man. His brown eyes followed the tube that was connected to the needle and the blood bag. His fist, which had been contracting while he was sitting down, had ceased and he plucked the needle out of his arm effortlessly. He watched as the miniscule hole in his arm healed at a fast rate and disappear as if nothing had happened.**

**He finished tying up the blood bag and sealed it tightly, carrying it inside his jacket. He left the basement of the house he was staying in and walked outside. Using his super speed, he found himself in the meeting spot that he had grown accustomed to. Within a few minutes, a human had approached him with a bundle of money in his hand. They made the trade and both men left the spot happy with the profit they made. He didn't understand the human beings' fascination with his blood, but he wasn't one to complain. If it meant that he could keep living the way he has been, then he could care less.**

**He couldn't believe that the Sheriff of Area 5 had actually decided to let him go. What a fool he was. Why would he stop something that was going so well? He would just have to be much more careful and much craftier that he was before.**

_I let out a breath that I was holding after I released the head of the young man. I doubled over on the floor, trying desperately to catch my breath._

_I wasn't sure what had just happened, but I had never had a vision like that before. Everything was enhanced extremely. I felt the same emotions, the same feelings, the same thoughts and actions, everything. I rubbed the crook of my arm, still feeling the sharp sting of where the needle should have been._

"_I'm assuming it was too much for you to take all at once?" Eric asked._

"_I… it was stronger this time. Stronger than it's ever been. None of my visions have ever been so clear and distinct. I've never looked into a vampire's future before," I explained as I slowly stood up off the ground and regained my composure. I steadied my breathing and tried to calm down._

"_So, what's the verdict?" Pam asked._

_I didn't answer. I looked to the guy on the ground as he stared up at me with pleading eyes, practically begging me to show him mercy. I quickly shot Eric a glance, and I immediately wished that I hadn't. From that one look, he knew. He gave Pam a nod and she grabbed the man from the back of his neck and began walking towards the back of the warehouse. I could hear his protests and his screams, and the farther away from me they got, the louder his screams were…_

I let out a sharp breath as I came to, my body about to collapse on the ground. Thankfully Sam tried to hold me upright, but I pushed him away and ran into the bathroom that I had just come out of. I held onto one of the sinks, resting my head against the cold faucet as my breaths came out hard and labored. It felt like I was going to throw up, but nothing was coming. I felt sick. It wasn't just a fever/cold sick feeling. My body felt weak, like it was about to drop to the ground. My heart was pounding in my chest, and my head was pounding. I didn't know what was going on, but it scared me.

'_What the hell was that? It was a vision, but that already happened. How did I have a vision of the past? Was that even a vision?'_

I barely made out the sound of a door opening, and I felt a hand pull my hair from around my face and another hand rubbing gentle circles into my back. I swallowed and stayed in that position for a while. I don't think I was ready to move just yet.

"Anna?" Sam spoke after a while, and I waited a few moments before I slowly stood up straight. He moved his hand from my back and fixed my hair so that it was out of my face incase I started spewing chunks.

"Can you talk?" he asked, and I turned around so I was facing him. I sat at the edge of the sink, still feeling dizzy.

"Yeah," I nodded slowly.

"What the hell just happened to you? You scared the hell out of me."

"I don't know," I said quietly, feeling tears forming in my eyes. I swallowed, still feeling like I was going to vomit at any moment.

"Are you ok?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry," I sighed as tears started spilling down my cheeks. I hurriedly wiped them away with the back of my hand.

"Hey, hey… come on, don't cry," he said quietly as he moved in and pulled me into a hug. I still needed to hold onto the sink, so I hugged him with my free hand, burying my face in his shoulder and gripping the back of his shirt. "Do you feel better now?"

"A little bit. I guess it was a reaction to the pills or something," I lied. He rubbed my back softly, and I couldn't help but sigh at how nice it felt.

"Maybe we should get you home so you can rest, then. Can you walk?" he asked, pulling away and forcing me to reluctantly let him go.

"I'll need some help," I replied, still feeling the wooziness in my body.

He nodded and helped me off the sink, wrapping an arm around my waist before I had a chance to tumble to the ground. We slowly left the bathroom and made our way out of the restaurant. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see anything that would trigger another vision like the one before. I reopened them when I felt the cool night's breeze hit my skin. We were already next to the car, and Sam pulled open the passenger's side door of his car and helped me in.

"I have to go pay the check. I'll be back in a second, okay?" he said, rubbing my arm. I nodded as he closed the door and jog back inside the restaurant.

I let out groan and rested my head against the cool glass window. I felt my phone vibrating inside my wristlet, but I didn't bother checking to see who it was. It stopped ringing, only to start again a few seconds later. Frustrated, I pulled it off of my wrist and threw it on the driver's seat. I rested my head back on the window, trying to ignore the incessant bussing. I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but I suddenly heard the driver's door open, and I jumped in surprise.

"Easy," Sam said quietly, holding a hand up in defense. "It's just me."

I sighed and relaxed again, rubbing my temple with my fingers. "Here, I got you some water," Sam said, and I looked up to see a plastic cup in his hand filled with water. I took it and gave him a quiet 'thanks' before downing the cool liquid. I crushed the cup in my hand and placed my head back on the cool window.

The drive back was relatively quiet, with Sam asking me every few minutes if I was okay. He held onto my hand the entire ride, and whenever he didn't feel like asking me, he would give it a small squeeze, and I would squeeze back softly in return. I didn't remember much of the ride. I remember feeling like I needed to throw up again, and I remember Sam stopping the car and helping me breathe and relax myself for a while, but the rest was a blur.

"We're here," I heard Sam say as the car went off. I opened my eyes and looked out the window and saw the front of my house. I was so tired and was looking forward to sleeping so badly that I didn't waste any time. I pulled the door open and began walking to the door on shaky legs.

"Anna, wait!" Sam called, and I heard his door slam shut as he rushed towards my side.

"I think I'm okay now, Sam," I said, but he still wrapped my arm around his shoulder and held onto my waist.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're just fine. That's why you left your purse in my car," he replied quietly, and I couldn't help but smile at his sarcastic tone.

"I'm sorry about this, Sam. I ruined the entire night for you. I'm the worst date in the world," I groaned.

"You're not the worst date. You're far from it," he said, and stopped walking when we were finally at the front of the door. "Just promise me two things," he said, steadying me so that I could lean my back against the door and face him.

"What?"

"First, promise me that you're gonna go get some rest right now, as soon as you get inside," he said, and I nodded.

"Of course. I can't wait to get in bed, to be honest," I smiled slightly.

"Good. And the second thing," he paused, and I nodded for him to continue. "Promise me that you'll make me take you out again," he said quietly, placing my wristlet back around my hand.

"You sure you still want to after tonight? What if I pass out on you again?" I smiled lazily.

"Yeah, well… I think you're worth the trouble," he replied with a small grin, and I looked down, a smile still on my face.

"Sure. I'd like that a lot."

"Great. I'll make you get some rest now," he said as he moved closer to where I was standing. My eyes instinctively closed as he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss on my cheek, letting his lips linger there for a moment. He moved away slightly, and I turned my head slightly, leaving a few inches separating our faces. I watched as his eyes glanced down at my lips before meeting my eyes again. Without hesitating, he leaned closer, and I met him halfway. His lips were soft, and his kiss was slow and passionate. He pulled away slowly only to meet me in another hungry kiss. This time, his hand held onto my cheek and he deepened the kiss, his thumb gently stroking my cheekbone. I gripped onto his arm, trying to steady my already dizzy self. I felt his tongue trace my bottom lip, and I hesitated before pulling away from him, biting on my bottom lip in the process.

"I'm sorry," he said shyly as he drew his hand away from my face.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for. I just didn't want to faint before I had a chance to make it inside," I smiled, and he let out a small laugh. "Goodnight, Sam."

"Goodnight," he said softly before pulling away and turning around to walk towards his car. I turned away from him and opened my purse, pulling out my keys and opening my door. I turned around and watched as he gave me a small wave before he drove down the street, disappearing from my sight.

I closed the door and locked it before making my way up the stairs and to my bedroom. I had to hold onto the walls and the banister to make sure I didn't fall down. Halfway up the stairs, my phone rang again, and I fished it out of my purse and pressed the talk button before holding it up to my ear.

"Hello?"

"I called you four times. I thought I told you to keep your phone on," I heard Eric say on the other line.

"Well I was out, so sorry," I replied rudely. I was not in the mood to deal with him tonight.

"You need to come to Fangtasia now," he said, disregarding my obviously annoyed tone.

"Why?" I sighed, rubbing my temple.

"Because I called you about an hour ago to be here, and you didn't show up. Now I want you to come now."

I didn't answer right away. I was fuming inside. His sarcasm was not helping the situation, and I didn't have the energy to argue with him. I hadn't forgotten about the other night, and my feelings hadn't changed. I still wanted nothing to do with him, but he wasn't going to let that happen.

"Fine. I'll be there soon."

"Don't take too long." With that, I heard the line disconnect. I moved my phone from my ear and placed it back in my wristlet. Walking up to my room, I tossed the purse on my vanity table and sat on my bed and pulled the heels off my aching feet.

"Chris!" I called, and waited to see if he was there. I heard the door to his room open and his footsteps as he walked down the hallway towards my bedroom.

"Hey, you're back. You okay? You look kind of pale," he commented as he walked further into the room.

"I'm fine. Look, I need you to do me this right now," I began, and I waited for him to nod before I continued. "Don't ask me any questions, and don't ask why, but I need you to promise me that between tonight and tomorrow morning when I'm up, you do not answer any doors, no matter how may times you hear it being pounded on. Do not answer any phone calls _at all. _Pull all the curtains to the windows closed. If you hear someone tapping on the window, do not look outside. Come and tell me. Promise me that right now."

"I promise. But-"

"I'll explain it all in the morning. Right now, I need you to lock up all the doors, put the security code in the alarm and stay in your room at all times. Okay?" I asked, and he nodded before heading downstairs to do what I asked. I got out of my clothes and changed into my pajama pants and a tank top.

At the moment, I didn't care how badly Eric wanted me and my power. I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be of much help when I was this weak anyway, so I decided to deal with the consequences some other time.

Right now, I didn't care about what Eric wanted or the hold that he had over me. All I knew was that I needed to get some rest. And that's what I was going to do.

As far as I was concerned, Eric could go fuck himself.

**Sorry, not that much Eric in this one, but there was a lot of Sam. I needed to give Anna some happiness in her life, she was miserable. And it still didn't work out because the night was ruined. Man, Anna can't catch a break, can she?**

**Think it was smart for her to not go and see Eric? We'll see in the next one.**

**Sincerely,**

**PoisonLipz**

**P.S.: 40 more days till True Blood is back. I for one cannot wait!**


	10. Surprise Rendezvous

_Here's the next one. I changed the POV from 1__st__ person to 3__rd__ person, so it'll be a bit different. I think you'll all like this one ;)_

It was a little after nine o'clock, and Anna was tired as hell.

After three more weeks of staying at home and doing nothing, her ribs had healed up quite nicely. She was able to remove the bandages and stop taking the pills. She still couldn't perform any extra strenuous tasks just yet, but she more or less as good as new. Even though she wasn't doing anything productive, Sam kept her company almost every day. After the incident at the restaurant, she pretty much thought that she had blown her chances with him. Thankfully, however, he wasn't like most of the guys that she had experienced in the past. He was a genuinely caring person. She couldn't stop smiling the morning after the date. Once she woke up, she had two voice mails from him asking her to call him when she woke up so he could make sure that she was okay. He then showed up in the night and helped her make dinner, which they enjoyed together. Their relationship has been steadily growing, and she was genuinely happy, which she hadn't been for a long time

It was her first day back in the office, and she had so many things thrown at her that she couldn't think straight. Deandra had a trip out of town, so she wasn't even there to keep her company. She tried to get all of the backed up work done, but that was impossible to do. There were so many new cases to look at and so many people to help out that she could barely sit still for the whole day. Even though it was a lot to take on the first day back, she was happy with it. She hated feeling useless, which is how she felt when she was on her break. She liked keeping herself active and busy. Not only did it keep her occupied, but it kept her visions from coming too rapidly.

She let out a yawn as she collected her things to prepare to head home. Almost everyone else on the floor had cleared out already, and she was one of the last ones left, if not the last one. When she had everything together, she locked up her office and headed downstairs to her car. She had to blast the AC and turn up the music to keep her eyes from shutting down, which they desperately wanted to do.

She stopped at a light and looked for her phone, but couldn't find it in her bag. She sighed, realizing that she must have left it in her desk. Letting out a tired groan, she turned back around and headed back to the office. She hurriedly jogged up the staircase when she got there, not wanting to wait on the elevator which would take forever to come. She just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Upon reaching her office, Anna saw the light from her phone shining through the glass top of her desk, and she could hear it vibrating from outside the glass door. Unlocking the door with her key, she ran inside and pulled the top drawer open, successfully reaching her phone before it had a chance to stop ringing and go to voicemail. Sam's name lit up the screen, so she pressed the talk button and held it up to her ear.

"Hey, Sam," she greeted with a sigh.

"Tired?" he laughed.

"Yeah. Long first day back. So much things I had to catch up on, and I'm still not done. Plus I left my phone up here, so I had to run up and get it just now."

"You sound like you could use some rest."

"Definitely," she smiled, closing her drawer and turning around. "I'm so happy my day is over and I can finally go ho-"

She stopped mid sentence and stood dead still, a small gasp escaping her lips in the process. She wasn't sure if she should be scared, terrified, surprised, shocked, or all of the above at the moment. There was no way she was getting home now, seeing as how there was a very tall, dead, blonde vampire blocking her way out. He was staring back at Anna with those sharp blue eyes, and an expression that she couldn't quite place. She couldn't tell if he was upset, angry, or amused that he was able to elicit this kind of reaction from her. It also didn't help that she hadn't switched on the lights when she came back up, and the room was now pitch black. The only light that was shining in was from the brightness of the moon, and all that did was cast an eerie atmosphere to the room. She didn't know how long she stood there for, staring back at him, but he looked so menacing at that moment that she was afraid of what would happen if she decided to move.

She wouldn't have been so scared if he had tried to contact her after the night she didn't show up at Fangtasia. He didn't call back, he didn't pay her a visit at her house, and he didn't send Pam to visit either. Anna would be on the lookout whenever she was at her front door, waiting for the intrusion from one of the two vampires, but it never came. A couple of days turned to a couple of weeks, and she didn't hear a peep from him again. Wishful thinking made her believe that her was disappointed and decided to not call on her to help again, or he saw how distraught she was after her first night with him and decided to leave her be, but that's all it was. Wishful thinking. At least when she was at her house she knew when and where to expect a visit. This threw off her guard completely, and she knew that's why he did it. To mess with her.

Snapping out of her reverie, she heard Sam almost shouting her name over the phone. "Anna? You still there?"

"Yeah. Um, I'm in the elevator, and it must be messing up my signal. I'll call you when I get out." She faintly heard him respond with a 'bye', but her mind wasn't paying attention to him anymore. She pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed the end call button without breaking eye contact. She held the phone in both hands and knotted her fingers together, gripping the phone tightly between each hand. Her nerves were getting the best of her, and she felt as if the contraption would break apart in her palms any minute from the force she was using.

"Anastasia," he greeted finally, his voice as dark and deep as she had remembered.

"How… how did you get in here?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible.

"Glamouring the security guard of the building was easy enough. The receptionist was gone for the day, and everyone else was no where in sight. Except for you," he explained simply.

"Okay. Why are you-"

"Let me stop your question with one of my own," he interrupted, taking a step forward and forcing Anna to take a reflexive step back. She was aware that she was standing behind her desk, but figured it wouldn't do much to protect her from him. "Why weren't you at Fangtasia the night I asked you to be there?"

"I-I was-"

"Not only did you not answer your phone when I called, but you didn't even show up after I got a hold of you. Now why is that?"

"I couldn't-" She didn't realize that she had instinctively kept taking more and more steps back, and she didn't notice in time to stop herself from falling back into her leather chair. She grabbed both handles to support herself and dropped her phone in the process. Looking back up, Anna suppressed a scream as she now found herself face to face with Eric. She dug her nails into the padded handles, her knuckles turning white from the strain. She was amazed at how fast he could really move. Within the span of time it took to blink he moved from one side of the room to the other. He was leaning over her now, his hands holding onto either side of the top of her chair.

"We had an agreement, Anastasia," he spoke lowly.

"I know we did," she said quietly.

"You would work for me, and I wouldn't harm the lives of your brother and your friends in danger."

"I know that, but-"

"So since you didn't honor your part of the agreement, why haven't I sank my fangs in your friend's neck yet?"

"Well if you'd let me talk!" She shouted, finally finding her voice, upset that he kept interrupting without giving her a chance to explain herself. He could be mad at her, that was fine. But once he mentioned harming Dee or anyone else she cared about for that matter, that was when she got upset. Upon her yelling back, however, Eric's fangs managed to snap out at that moment, which caught her off guard and she had to suppress a shriek from escaping her lips when it happened. She had to admit, she was pretty damn scared at that moment, but she didn't back down. She glanced at his mouth, watching as the tips of his fangs gleamed under the moonlight before her eyes met his again. She was sure he could hear her heart pounding, but she talked anyway.

"First of all, the agreement was that I would use my visions to help you with whatever you needed. You're not paying me, therefore I'm not working for you. Secondly, you can't call me at any hour of the night and expect me to just show up at your beck and call. It doesn't work that way. I can't always show up. I have a life that sometimes can't be interrupted just because you need to use my ability. I'm not a dog, and I won't be treated as such. Third, you can't cancel the agreement just because of one misunderstanding. It's not fair. I already proved that I could help you. Event tough I didn't agree with the terms, I still did it. I'm still going to help you with whatever it is you need help with. I'm not going back on that," she explained carefully. By the time she was done with her speech, Anna's chest was heaving up and down. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself before opening her mouth to speak again. "I know I didn't come, but I have a reason," she finished quietly.

Eric's eyes slowly roamed down her form before meeting her eyes again. She saw something flash in his blue irises, but it went away as quickly as she had caught it. "I'm listening," he said.

"If I had went to see you that night, I wouldn't have been of much use. I was really weak and I didn't feel good. I could barely stand on my own, much less come up with a really good and foolproof vision. "

"Why were you weak?"

Anna opened her mouth to respond, but she couldn't come up with an answer to give him. She still wasn't sure what the hell did happen to her that caused the weird vision. It hasn't happened again since that night, so she decided not to dwell in it too much for the time being. "I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out myself," she answered, looking away from him and staring at her hands that were now in her lap. "It's not a lie, though. I was pale and shaky and… I'm telling the truth and I have two people that can confirm it."

The room was extremely quiet for a while, and the only thing that could be heard was her breathing and the nervous tapping of her heel on the carpeted floor. Anna waited anxiously for anything to happen, but nothing did. Words couldn't describe how agonizingly painful it was to wait for him to speak again.

Anna suddenly felt his cold fingertips graze the side of her face, and it caused her to look back up at him instantly. Her eyes were wide with shock from the touch, but it was soon forgotten as she stared back into his crystal blue eyes. She didn't care that he had touched her face without permission. She didn't even care that he had showed up at her office uninvited and was keeping her from going home or going to see Sam. At that moment, she was only concerned with the matter at hand, which was currently Eric. She waited patiently for him to speak again.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes," Anna replied eagerly.

"Good. Now, tell me why you were weak," he ordered quietly, his hand moving to brush some of the hair that had gotten loose from Anna's fall out of her face. She though he would have moved his hand afterwards, but he kept it holding onto the side of her face, keeping her head up and making sure the eye contact between them didn't break.

"I don't know. I can't explain it."

"Try," he pressed, running his thumb over her cheek.

"I… I can't," she sighed, upset that she couldn't come up with the words to explain her past predicament. Anna could see his face change after that, like he was growing frustrated, and she felt bad that she wasn't able to be of any use. "I'm sorry," she said sadly. Eric's eyes narrowed a bit before he moved away from in front of Anna and made his way back on the opposite side of the desk.

Letting out a short breath, Anna blinked a few times before shutting her eyes tightly and rubbing her temple with her hand. She let out a groan as she could feel the arrival of what would be a very bad headache. "Ow," she muttered softly, feeling as her head began pounding for no apparent reason.

"I don't know why," she heard Eric say, and her head snapped back up instantly, momentarily forgetting that Eric was still in her office. Unfortunately, that little movement made her become more disoriented, and she was having a hard time getting her eyes to focus on the tall vampire. "But, I think I believe your unexplainable excuse."

"Well you should. I told you I wasn't-" she stopped mid sentence, confused. When her eyes were completely focused and back to normal, she noticed something strange. "Wait a minute. When did you move? Why don't I remember you moving?"

He didn't answer, he jut turned around and faced her again, a lazy look on his face.

"Did you glamour me again?"

"I suspected that you were lying to me, so I had to make sure." She noticed then that he had retracted his fangs.

"You can't just do that!" Anna said, rising from her seat to stand in front of him again. "I told you I was telling the truth. What reason did I have to lie?"

"You lied to me about your power," he retorted, looking down at her.

"Why would I _not _lie about that? No one knows about my power except a few people and you were a strange vampire with an even stranger fascination with me. Why would I tell you the truth about my visions? You still glamoured me anyway, and look where that's gotten me. I've already helped you condemn a man to death!"

"You need to get over that," he muttered, looking away from her face and towards the ceiling.

"Are you serious? You can't tell me to just get over something like that. I don't help people kill other people for a living. That's why I still find it unbelievable that you would ever compare us to each other. You can't compare what I do for a living with what you did and probably always do. I bring justice to those that deserve it and help then reform. I don't kill people. What you do is wrong."

Anna didn't realize that she had moved until she found her back against the glass door ad Eric's hand gripping both her arms. He hovered over her, his strong hands holding her in place. She looked up at him, her eyes wide with surprise from his actions and the way he was looking at her. It was a mixture of anger, frustration, and something else she couldn't place. She found it strange to see him this way. He always had a mask on and every time she saw him she saw a façade, but this was the first time she actually saw real emotion in his face, even if it was just a slight amount.

"Look, and listen carefully. As a vampire, there are certain things that you need to adhere to. I wouldn't expect a human such as yourself to understand. The same way you have rules and laws that you have to live by, there are codes and laws that we as vampires have to live by. It those laws are not followed, there can be serious consequences. Being a Sheriff, I have to ensure that those laws are followed, or else I'm the one that'll suffer from the mistakes of others."

"That doesn't mean that people have to die," she said.

"If it meant saving the life of yourself and the ones you cared about, wouldn't you do the same?"

Anna opened her mouth to reply, but couldn't respond to that. It was true what he said. If it meant saving the ones that she cared about, she would risk everything for them. He let go of her arms after she didn't reply, and moved away from her and walked to the opposite side of the room, stopping in front of the window and peering down at the street. She rubbed her arms where his hands were holding her before crossing them over her chest.

"What's a sheriff?" she asked after a while. He didn't answer right away, but he turned to face her again when he did begin his explanation.

"In the vampire community, there are levels of power that various people hold. Our whole system is basically a hierarchy. A sheriff is a person in the hierarchy that holds some power over other vampires. Even though we hold a high position, we still have to answer to a higher authority. As a sheriff, it is your job to watch over the vampires in your area and make sure they abide to the laws and codes that all vampires have to follow. Other vampires in the area report to the sheriff is they suspect a crime among another vampire is going on.

So… you're a sheriff?"

"Yes. I'm the Sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana."

"That's…. so, there's like a whole bunch of different levels of power and rules for vampires?"

"Basically, yes."

"Huh." That was a lot to take in. It was weird knowing that vampires had their own laws and leaders to obey. The government that humans had to live by was pretty extreme considering some of their penalties for crimes. The US government was bad enough, but Anna couldn't imagine what a vampire government would be like. Their laws and codes must be extremely strict, and their penalties for breaking laws must be brutal. She didn't want to imagine some of the things that they could possibly do to punish law breakers. If it was Eric's job to kill a vampire just for selling their blood, she couldn't imagine what torture they would go through if they did something more serious.

Looking back up, she noticed that Eric was still staring at her, even though she was done with the questions and he was done talking. She narrowed her eyes at the thought that he might have been looking at her the whole time she was thinking.

"What?"

"What? I can't look at you now?" he smirked. Huh, there were the smart ass comments again.

"Are we done here? Can I leave now?"

"There's the door," he said, tilting his head towards the glass doors. She watched him cautiously as she slowly walked towards him and bent down to pick up her cell phone that she had discarded earlier. "I just hope we won't have this problem again."

Standing back up, se looked at him and saw the seriousness in his face. His voice may have been joking, but he wasn't kidding. He was entirely serious. "Hopefully it won't," she replied. Anna couldn't completely promise anything. If the situation called for it and she couldn't see him when he asked, then that's how it would be.

When he didn't respond, she turned back around and walked towards the door to leave. She had her hand on the metal handle when he decided to speak again.

"I can make you forget."

She stopped turning the handle, her curiosity definitely peaked now. "Forget what?"

"The other night. I can make you remember that you helped me, but forget the details."

"You can do that?" she asked, turning back around to face him. He gave me a simple nod. "Why?"

"We're going to be associating with each other a lot. I might as well try to get on your good side," he smirked.

"Please. Considering all that's happened since I made the mistake of stepping foot into your bar, it's going to take a lot more to get on my good side," she scoffed.

"So… do you or don't you?" he inquired, slowly walking back towards her. Anna took a moment to really think about it. Would there be any consequences to this? She didn't think so. That night was the reason why she was still having a bit of trouble sleeping. It was the reason she had that episode at the restaurant that night. All she wanted to do was forget, and now he was giving her the perfect opportunity.

One thing that Anna did find odd was that Eric was being so…tolerable. Yeah, that was the word. Even though the meeting didn't start out that way, he was being a lot better than Anna had ever seen him before. She wouldn't call it him being kind. She wouldn't even call it _remotely_ nice. But she could deal with him. If he acted like this all the time, maybe she wouldn't hate him so much.

"Fine."

"I'll have to glamour you again," he added.

"You didn't say that before," Anna pointed out. Now she was thinking that it wasn't such a good idea. "How do I know that that's all you'll do?"

"I don't have any reason to do anything else to you," he pointed out. That didn't make her feel any less skeptical, but she wasn't going to say no. She wanted to forget the details of that night completely so her mind could be at ease again.

"Okay, fine. Go ahead."

He sped up in front of her face, and her eyes momentarily went wide from the sudden movement. She took a step back before steadying herself and crossing her arms over her chest. Eric's eyes roamed over her face for a minute before he focused on her eyes. Anna's face had a sort of determined look before, but once she and Eric made eye contact again, her face went blank. Her hands slowly dropped to her side, and she was fully attentive to Eric now.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"Good," Eric smirked before he went on. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't scare me. Even though you can suck me dry at any minute, you won't kill me."

"Is that so?" Eric asked, his hand reaching to mess with the curls at the ends of her hair.

"Yes," she said slowly, blinking once.

"What do you think of me?" he asked next, tilting his head to the side, curious to what she would say.

"You're hard to read. You're complicated, and cold, and you seem almost heartless at times…you live by the law, and you carry it out without regarding the fact that you might be hurting people in the process. You're using me and my power for your own personal gain, and I hate it. I shouldn't be forced to do this, but I'm going to keep doing it if it means that the people I care about will stay safe."

Eric had listened to her answer, and he didn't show any reaction to it. What she said was the truth. He wasn't ashamed to admit it, but she had said it herself, he had to get his job done. If that meant using her to his advantage, then that's what he was going to do.

"So you don't like me?"

"No."

"Do you hate me?"

"No."

His eyes widened a bit at that. He was sure that that would have been a definite yes, and he was slightly shocked when he said no. "Why not?"

"You haven't… given me a good enough reason to. You didn't do anything to personally harm me. And you saved my life. I can't hate you for that," she sighed.

He let out a thoughtful sound when she was done explaining. It was good that she didn't hate him. That meant working with her wouldn't be too difficult.

"Do you remember the night when you helped me?" he asked next, finally doing what he told her he was going to do.

"Yes."

"Good. I want you to forget everything except that you helped me. You will forget that that there was the vampire whose future you saw, you will forget that he was killed, you will forget all of the details of that night. You will remember that you showed up at the warehouse, and you left and went home to bed."

"I helped you… then I went home to sleep," she mumbled.

"Do you understand?"

"I… I underst-" she didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. Eric watched as she stumbled back slightly. She wasn't looking into his eyes anymore, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head before she was fully falling backwards. Eric cause her with ease before she hit the ground, lifting her and throwing her over his shoulder.

Something was wrong with her. He noticed it the first time he tried to glamour her. Usually when he glamoured humans, they weren't able to tell that something had happened to them. They would be in an aloof state for a while, confused and in need of an explanation, but that was it. Anna, on the other hand, was able to tell that something had been done to her. He knew something was wrong when she was holding her head in pain after the first glamour. It wasn't supposed to cause her any pain, and yet it did. The same thing had happened only a moment ago, and now she had fainted because of it, which has never happened with another human that he has glamoured before. Something was different about her, and she seemed to be piquing his interest every time he saw her.

* * *

Letting out a groan, Anna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get rid of the discomfort she felt behind her lids. She eventually rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and then stretched her limbs, letting out a groan in the process. Slowly sitting up, she felt the unsteady movement underneath her and opened her eyes. She sat up slowly and carefully placed her hand on the bottom of whatever she was on and tried to steady herself. Looking around, she realized that she was at the front of her house, laying on her porch swing. She saw that it was still nighttime, and she was still in her work clothes. She tried to gather her thoughts and figure out what had happened and how she had gotten there.

"You're finally awake."

Anna's head snapped to her right to locate the source of the voice. She saw Eric leaning on one of the support columns. Once she saw him, everything came rushing back to her. The visit from Eric at her office, the questions, the explanations, the talking.

"How did we get here?" she asked, sliding her legs off the swing and standing up. She stumbled a bit from the sudden movement and had to grab onto the railing to steady herself and keep from falling over.

"You passed out in your office," he answered, leaning off of the railing and walking towards Anna.

"How?"

"You tell me. What do you remember?"

"You came in my office, harassed me… offered to erase my memory of that night… that's all I remember."

"And do you still remember that night?" he asked, stopping a few feet away from her.

"Yes. Was I supposed to have forgotten by now?" she asked, furrowing her brows.

"It didn't work," he muttered softly.

"That's evidently clear," she stated, sarcasm laced in her tone

Eric sped in front of her, causing her to step back and her back to hit one of the columns. "Jesus, can you stop doing that," she sighed, frustrated. He didn't listen to her, but instead took a hold of her face with one hand while staring into her eyes.

"What are you-"

"Tell me everything you remember about tonight," he said in a quiet tone.

"You were there, you know what happened," Anna replied, turning her face and swatting his hand away from her face. She narrowed her eyes at him and ran a hand through her hair. Eric recovered quickly and took a hold of her chin with his hand. He made sure that he was staring in her eyes before he spoke again.

"Kiss me."

She widened her eyes at this and immediately slapped his hand away again. "What the f- no!" she shouted, pushing his chest with her hands. He didn't budge, but he still stepped back and gave her room to move away from him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why can't I glamour you anymore?"

"You can't glamour me anymore?" she smiled, amazed and grateful. She hated the idea that he could control her and make her say or do anything that he wanted. If he really couldn't do it anymore, she would be ecstatic. "That's great! I'd rather you not be able to use me like a lifeless doll."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you?" he asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

"Human," she sighed, pronouncing the letters as if he was a young child. "How many times are you gonna ask me that question?"

"You're something, but you definitely aren't human. Not entirely at least.," he stated. "I'm going to find out just what you are."

"Well, have fun with that," she said, giving him a thumbs up and a fake smile. He smirked at her before walking back to her, grabbing her hand and placing her car keys in her palm.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Anastasia," he smirked before walking away and speeding away from her house. Anna shook her head before walking over to her car and opening the door. She saw all her things in there and grabbed her phone before anything else. She saw that it was a little passed midnight, and she had seven missed calls from Sam. Grabbing her things, she locked her car back and headed into the house. There were plenty of things running through her mind at the moment, but she wouldn't confront them at the moment. Her priority at the moment was calling Sam and making sure he knew she was okay.

And that's what she did. Sam first, Eric and his craziness later.

**So, what did you guys think of this chapter? I hope it was good, and I hope I kept Eric in character. Not gonna lie, it was a bit challenging at some points. Anywho, rate and tell me what you think. I think I'm going to use the 3****rd**** person from now on. It sounds better to me, and it allows me to add more info about the character's thoughts/emotions and everything else. Tell me if you guys like it or have a problem with it. Oh, and 32 more days till we get bitten again, guys!**

**Signing off at 2:25 AM,**

**PoisonLipz**


	11. Honesty Part I

"Let me get this straight. You think that owning a little bar is a better position to have than a lawyer?"

"Of course. Anyone I ask would agree with me."

"Yeah, anyone **you** ask. I have a ton of people who would definitely disagree."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, I make more money than you, I have a bigger house than you, a better car than you, more notoriety. I pretty much have it all."

"Yeah, okay. But my job is less stress, less work, I can still support myself pretty well and I have more friends than you do."

"I'm sort of an introvert, so I don't need that many friends to begin with. I'm fine with my tight, close knit group of friends. And my job may be a lot of work, but at the end of the day, it's very rewarding. And I can more than take care of myself and my brother."

"Whatever you say."

"Just face it, Sam. My job is better than yours," Anna said as she patted him on the shoulder.

"Fine. You may have all of those things, but I'm my own boss. I control everything, and I don't have some jackass giving me orders and telling me what to do."

Anna opened her mouth to retort, but couldn't come up with a clever one. She put her hands up in defeat. "Touché. I give you that one. But that makes you the jackass then, doesn't it?" she smirked as she leaned her elbow on the top of the couch and rested her chin in her palm.

"I guess, but I'm not a jackass to my employees. I treat them with the utmost respect."

"I'm sure you do," she said sarcastically, a smile playing on her lips. "But even though my job is more stressful, you have a lot more responsibility. I mean, you had to fight off three vampires to make sure everyone else in your bar stayed safe. Which, I'm still mad about, by the way."

"Why are you still mad?" he chuckled.

"Because, Sam, you were stupid enough to think that you could take on three vampires, that's why I'm mad," Anna explained. She had come over to see him that night, and upon noticing that he was out of it, she questioned him and found out what had occurred. Sam thought that she would be worried and scared for his safety and offer him some kind of comfort. Instead, she started yelling and screaming at him, calling him an idiot for risking his life so carelessly. He tried to let her see his side of things, but she would always counter it with something better and more logical. He wasn't surprised though. She was a lawyer after all.

"Well, I'm sorry for making you worry. But they were threatening my friends. I couldn't let that slide."

"I suppose. Despite everything else, I have to admit that it must be nice having all the control for yourself. No one to take orders from, no one to work for. You work for yourself and no one else."

"So you like control, huh?" he smirked, and she watched as he leaned closer to her.

"Of course. If you have all the control, you're always the one on top," she smiled as their noses brushed against each other.

"Is that so," he whispered, leaving only a few centimeters between their faces.

"Of course," she whispered against his lips before he pressed his lips firmly against hers. She laughed a bit before she grabbed onto his arms, pulling him closer to her.

It was around eleven in the night, and she was sitting on a beige sofa with Sam at his trailer, which was located close to his bar. They had been there for about two hours, just talking and fooling around, relaxing and enjoying each other's company. She had been doing that a lot recently, and neither one of them had any problem with the arrangement. So far, they haven't gotten into any arguments or fights. Well, they would argue about their different standpoints on certain topics, but it would never lead to any real altercation between the two. When the argument was over, they would switch topics and start talking like crazy again. She had found herself coming over more and more recently. Sam was the highlight of her day. He was like an energetic little puppy that would lift her spirits instantly. After working long hours in the office, she would come to his house for a few hours to unwind and relax. There was only one time when she stayed later than she had expected, and ended up sleeping over at his house. She panicked like crazy, because she didn't want Sam to get the wrong idea, but he insisted that they would simply be sleeping in the same bed and nothing more. He even woke her up and drove her home the next morning. She was beyond happy when he didn't try anything, and it made her respect him even more than she already did. She was just worried how long it would stay that way. She really liked him, and he made it clear plenty of times that he liked her a lot as well, but she wasn't ready to sleep with him just yet.

Sam had taken it upon himself to softly push Anna back the couch, so now she was laying flat on her back as he hovered over her. Anna's hands released their hold of Sam's arms, and instead traveled up to sink her fingers into his brown hair as the other grabbed onto his shirt, pulling him closer to her. His tongue traced the bottom of her lip, and she opened her mouth for him, her hand raking through his hair deliciously, causing him to let out a throaty moan. His tongue slid into her mouth, and her own glided against his eagerly.

His hand slipped under her purple camisole, leaving a trial of heat as his fingers ghosted over her stomach and slowly traveled around to her waist. They traced her curves sweetly before his hands simply rested on her hips. Anna pulled away from the kiss, out of breath and panting heavily as Sam kissed down her jaw painfully slow. He nipped at her skin, his stubble tickling her face as he traveled down her neck, trailing back up with hot, wet kisses.

His mouth found hers again, this time more passionate and hungry than before. He nipped at her bottom lip, causing her to let out a soft moan, but he captured it within the next kiss. Anna was lost. She was enjoying this way too much, and she wasn't thinking rationally. There were so many bad outcomes that could have resulted from this, and none of them were making their way into Anna's head at the moment. All she could focus on was Sam's lips and his touch. The sane part of her would have been scolding her by now, but the insane part couldn't care less.

It wasn't until Sam's hand had returned under her shirt and had brushed against the wire of her bra that Anna's senses came back. She broke the kiss, turning her head to the side and trying to catch her breath. Sam was doing the same, and she could feel his breath hitting her cheek. She closed her eyes and tried to compose herself.

"What's wrong?" Sam whispered breathily, causing her to reopen her eyes and turn around to face him. She could see his blue eyes filled with desire and lust, and she swallowed and took a deep breath before she answered.

"Nothing's wrong. It's just that," she said as she gently pushed his chest so that he could get off of her and she could sit up, and he reluctantly moved himself from on top of her and leaned back against the couch. "I have a court hearing tomorrow and I would rather not show up with a hickey on my neck," she joked as she got off of the couch and took a seat in front of him on the coffee table. She combed her fingers through her hair a few times, making it presentable again.

"You could always wear a scarf, you know."

"Yeah, well scarves don't work when it's eighty-plus degrees," she smiled as she lifted her hands raked then through Sam's locks, trying to remedy the mess she made of his hair. While she was focused on him, he was focused on her. He stared at her, confused. It wasn't the first time that they had gotten so worked up and she had stopped it before things had gotten too far. He wanted her, so badly, and she made it seem as if she felt the same way, but now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Anna's hands fell after she was done fixing Sam's hair, but he caught her wrists before they had a chance to fall back on her lap. She looked at him questioningly, watching as his eyes darted over her face.

"What's wrong Anna?"

"What do you mean?"

"Every time we're together, you always stop before anything happens. I mean, I don't want to sound like an asshole, and I don't want it to sound like I'm pressuring you, because I'm not, but we've been going out for two months and…"

"I know," she said, looking down and momentarily closing her eyes.

"I want you, Anna," he stated firmly, and it caused an involuntary shiver to run up her spine. "I mean, if you're worried that I'm gonna be rough or anything, I won't, I swear. I'll take it slow and easy."

"That's the least of my worries, Sam," she smiled, shaking her head slowly.

"What is it, Anna? I know you want me just as much as I want you, so what's the problem?"

"Nothing. It's just… I'm not ready to… go that far with you yet."

"Why? I mean it's not like you're a virgin or anything, so what's the problem?"

Anna squeezed her eyes shut when she heard the word virgin, scrunching up her face and slowly looking back up at him. She slowly opened one eye, watching as his face changed from confusion to one of awareness. The cat was out of the bag.

"You're a virgin?" he asked in disbelief.

"Well, damn, you don't have to sound to surprised about it. It makes me think that you thought I was some kind of whore or something," she said, pulling her hands away from his own.

"No, I didn't mean it like that," he said, grabbing hold of her hands again. "It's just that around these parts, hardly any of the girls are virgins, so it just came as a shock. I mean, that sounds bad, but it's the truth."

"Well, I'm not any girl, Sam," she stated firmly.

"I know. That's probably why I like you so damn much," he sighed, and she couldn't help but chuckle at that. "You're different from the rest, and I love that about you."

"So now what? Do we break up?" Anna asked, causing Sam's eyes to go wide.

"Hell no! Why would we do that?"

"Because that's usually the response to guys finding out that I'm a virgin," she answered. "They can't stand the wait so they break up and find some easy girl to be with."

"Well then those guys were fucking stupid and clearly didn't realize what an amazing girl they had," he said softly, brushing some hair out of her face. Anna smiled, leaning into his touch.

"So you're okay with this?" she asked. If he said yes, he was a liar. If he said no, he was telling the truth. No guy- scratch that, no _straight _guy is okay with not being able to have sex.

"Well, I'm not exactly okay with it, but I'm not gonna pressure you or anything, and I don't want this to ruin what we have. And we have a really good thing going here, Anna. I'll wait. Until you're ready."

'_Damn, that was a good answer,' _Anna thought to herself. Yes, Sam was definitely a keeper. "Okay," she said simply.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," Anna nodded.

"What made you hold out this long?"

"Well," she began, "I mean, it wasn't intentional. I didn't plan to be a to be in my twenties and still a virgin. But I was going to wait until I was married, but that was only because I was going to get married after college, when I was 21."

"What happened?"

"I thought I was in love with the guy, but the truth was that I had just moved to an unknown place after living most of my life with people that didn't give me the love and affection that a child needed, and I was naïve, lonely and scared. I met a gut in one of my classes, and I fell for him, hard. He just seemed so nice and honest, and he was m first boyfriend ever, meaning I was inexperienced in that field, so he took advantage of that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We planned to graduate with our bachelors and then celebrate by getting married. Lucky for me I found out a few months prior to said wedding that he was cheating on me with someone who was a good friend, and he had only wanted to marry me because of my name."

"Coletti?"

"No. Coletti is my birth parents' last name, and that's the name I chose to live by. My adoptive parents' last name was 'Walton,' and once he found out that they were my legal guardians and that they were loaded with cash, he planned the whole thing and took advantage of my former stupid self. Ever since then, my relationships have been shit, to say the least. I blame him for the reason I have relationship issues now. Like, it takes a lot for me to trust anyone now. Like, a real lot."

"Well, do you trust me yet?"

"Well…" Anna drawled, and Sam gave her a playful push on the shoulder, causing her to laugh. "Pretty much. You're getting there," she smirked.

Before anything else could be said, Anna's cell phone began vibrating from where it sat inside her bag, and she stood up and crossed the room to retrieve it. Fishing it out, she glanced at the screen and sighed when she saw the name. She pressed the talk button and held the phone up to her ear.

"Yes?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?"

"Kind of, yeah," she replied snippily.

"Well, sorry to cut your night short, but I need you at Fangtasia now." She could hear the sound of muffled music in the background.

"Why do you need me? Your bar's open tonight. I can hear the music."

"They'll be gone in a few minutes," he answered quickly, and she sighed.

"Do you really need me, Eric? I'm pretty sure if it's not too serious, you can do without me tonight," she replied in a hushed tone, looking back quickly and making sure Sam was out of earshot.

"Yes. The future of my bar depends on your presence here tonight," Anna couldn't help but roll her eyes at that, "so get here as soon as you can. Unless of course, you'd rather me come and get you. That would be a lot more fun."

She could hear the smile in his voice, and it caused her to let out a scoff. "I'll be there soon," she said simply. She could hear his chuckle before she hung up the phone. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair before grabbing her bag and returning to where Sam was seated on the couch.

"Everything alright?"

"Yes, and no. My friend just called and asked if I could meet her at her house. Something about her boyfriend and another woman. I would have said I was busy, but she sounded really distraught."

"Oh," Sam replied quietly.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's okay, I understand," he said instantly. "Do you want me to give you a ride over there?"

"No, I'll just drive there by myself," Anna said as she grabbed her leather jacket off the back of the couch. "I'll call you tomorrow, and I'm sorry again," she said as she crouched down in front of him.

"Don't be sorry. It's fine," he smiled, and she couldn't help the smile that found her lips as well. How did she manage to find someone as good as Sam?

She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against his lips before standing back up and walking towards the front door. She opened the door and turned around, giving Sam one last wave before leaking and closing the door behind her.

It scared Anna how easy it had gotten to lie to people about her situation with Eric. She lied to everyone except Chris and Deandra, and she felt like she was becoming an expert at it. She did it so easily and on the spot, and it made her feel horrible. But it was the only way she could think of protecting the people she cared about. If it meant keeping everyone out of the loop, then that's what she would have to do. She didn't like it-hell, she damn near despised it- but it was what she had to do.

* * *

"Son of a bitch," Anna muttered to herself when she got to Fangtasia. From outside in the parking lot, she could still hear music playing, but she just thought that the speakers were left on or something. But as soon as she walked in, she was surrounded by a slew of vampires and humans.

'_He said that it would be empty by the time I got here,' _she thought to herself as she made her way through the crowd of people, trying to steer clear of all the vampires that had stopped paying attention to what they were doing before and had started staring at her. She walked towards the back and expected to see Eric sitting in his chair like he usually was, but he wasn't there tonight. Her eyes darted around the area, but he was no where in sight.

"Are you Anastasia?"

Anna turned around to find the source of the voice, and came face to face with a short, skinny blonde woman. Her hair was between wavy and curly and reached just above her shoulders. She wore a pair of thin jeans shorts and a silver spandex bra top. Anna's eyes narrowed as she overlooked the woman standing in front of her.

"Yes," she said cautiously.

"Okay, good. That was a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be," she laughed. Anna's face had remained serious, waiting for some explanation. "Oh, right, you don't know me. My name is Ginger. I work for Eric here at Fangtasia."

"Oh," she said simply. "Where's Eric?"

"He left a little while ago with Pam. Said he had some things to take care of."

"So that asshole asked me to come and he's gone?" Anna asked incredulously.

"Yeah. But he told me to take you into his office so you could wait here until he gets back. He doesn't want any of the other vampires trying anything with you," she explained, whispering the last part.

Shaking her head, Anna pinched the bridge of her nose before dropping her hand back to her side. "Lead the way," she sighed, frustrated. Ginger nodded before walking and leading Anna to a door in the back. Ginger walked ahead and pushed the door open, stepping inside to allow Anna to walk through. She stepped in slowly, looking around the office and she was actually surprised. She didn't think this was what a vampire's office would look like. She didn't really have any idea in mind, but she didn't expect it to look so basic. There was a black leather chair behind the desk, which held a PC and had papers and envelopes scattered over it. There were a few file cabinets located here and there, and there were two more chairs at the front of the desk.

'_This is a vampire office?' _she thought to herself, raising an eyebrow.

"So, you could just sit in here until Long Shadow and I clear out the bar, then you can come out. Just don't touch anything and don't go through Eric's papers. He'll get mad."

"Okay. I won't," Anna smiled.

"Good. Is there anything I can get you? Maybe a drink or something? Eric said to make sure you were comfortable until he returned."

"Did he really?" Anna asked, raising an eyebrow. "Okay then. Can you get me a long island iced tea?"

"Coming right up," Ginger smiled before she left the room and closed the door, blocking out most of the music.

As soon as she was gone, Anna quickly walked behind the desk, careful not to knock any papers over. Her eyes wandered over the titles of the pages, but most of then were just information sheets about shipments and things for the bar. She caught sight of a few papers that looked strange, but only because they were in some other language that she didn't quite recognize. She narrowed her eyes, disappointed. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"Eric won't like you looking through his things."

Anna spun around, and she saw Long Shadow standing there, a glass cup in his hand. He had a smirk on his face, and she knew that he wasn't going to tell Eric that she was snooping around. Ever since Eric and Anna's arrangement, she had been to Fangtasia a lot more, and when she needed to kill time, she would talk to Long Shadow while she had a drink. She wouldn't say that he was a friend, per say, but he was a close acquaintance. He had told her on few occasions that he had enjoyed her presence as well.

"So don't tell him. It's not hurting anybody," Anna shrugged.

"I suppose not. I guess I can let you off the hook this time," he smirked, and she smiled as she walked back around the desk and towards Long Shadow, holding her hand out for her drink.

"Thank you," she said, referring to both the drink and him agreeing to keep quiet about her snooping around.

"No problem," he replied, handing her the glass cup. She took a sip through the straw before he spoke again. "What were you looking for, anyway?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "Just curious. Wanted to know what exactly a vampire's office consisted of."

"It's nothing exciting, trust me. It's pretty boring around here."

"Yeah… but you're a vampire. When you're surrounded by tourists and other vampires all night, it's gonna get pretty boring, considering the fact that you've probably experienced life changing events before."

Long Shadow smirked, giving her a long look before he began walking back out of the office. "You can come back out, now. Everyone's gone, so you won't have anyone to worry about."

"Already? That was quick," Anna said as she walked back out and into the now very empty bar. Her eyebrows raised, and Long Shadow answered her question before it was asked.

"We work really fast," he said over the still blaring music.

"Huh," Anna said thoughtfully as she walked over to one of the metal tables and took a seat. Long Shadow had kept the music on for her to enjoy, but at a lower level than what the bar was used to receiving. She sat and watched as Long Shadow cleared off the bar and as Ginger began cleaning up the place. She didn't know how long she waited there, but the next thing she knew, she had gone through three long island iced teas and was now a bit tipsy. She folded her hands on the table and rested her head, falling into a momentary nap.


	12. Honesty Part II

Before Eric even had the chance to walk inside Fangtasia, he knew that Anastasia was already there and waiting for him. He walked inside after Pam, immediately locating the curious human. His eyes scanned her body from afar as he watched her rest on one of the tables. He averted his gaze to Long Shadow, waiting for an explanation as to why she was asleep.

"She's been here for a while, and you've been gone for a longer while. She had a little too much to drink," Long Shadow said without turning around as he counted up the money in the register.

"Doesn't she smell delicious," Pam drawled as she walked around the table and headed towards the back room.

"She certainly does," Eric said lowly as he walked over to her and looked down at her for a bit, a tiny smirk appearing on his lips. He raised his hand and traced it down her warm face, sliding his finger down her cheek, over her jugular before tracing her collarbone.

Anna felt the weird sensation on her neck, and used her hand to flick away whatever it was that was bothering her. She let out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes, looked up and saw Eric standing next to her.

"I hope you enjoyed your little nap," he said as he left her side and walked to the back towards his office. Anna's eyes widened a bit, confused. Her head shot up and she looked around before remembering where she was. She calmed down a bit before hopping off the stool and making her way to the back where Eric's office was. She was slightly drunk, and it caused her to stumble over her feet a bit, but she caught herself before she had a chance to fall and actually hurt herself.

"I hope you got all your business taking care of," Anna spoke as she entered his office, "Seeing as how you took your sweet time and all."

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Eric asked as he shrugged off his jacket and threw it on the back of his chair.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your scent is all over this room."

"Because you told your little blonde waitress to put me in here. Remember?"

"Even so, I shouldn't be able to smell you so well over here unless you were wandering all over this room. Particularly behind my desk."

"Well I wasn't."

Eric sped up and stood in front of Anna, catching her by surprise and causing her to fall back on the black couch that was luckily behind her. "Ugh. Must you do that all the time?" she sighed, running a had through her hair.

"I don't take kindly to liars, Anastasia."

"Well it's a good thing I'm not a liar then," she said, looking up at him.

"Tell me the truth," he said, not breaking eye contact from her. She looked back up at him, her eyes narrowing a bit before her face went blank.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because…" she began, leaning in closer to his face. Eric's eyes narrowed at this, waiting to see what she had to say. "Because…. I'm sorry, it's really hard to keep a straight face when you're concentrating like that!" she laughed, pushing his shoulder and leaning back into the sofa. She clapped in excitement, suddenly giddy and overly excited.

"Life was so much easier when you could be glamoured," Eric stated as he stood up and walked out of the office.

"That's interesting coming from a guy whose lifeless," Anna said to herself since Eric had left the room. She leaned against the sofa, stretching out her limbs and smiling. Anna knew where she was and she knew who she was with, but those four drinks had still gotten to her, so she was a lot looser than she would usually be. If she was sober, she wouldn't be sprawled against Eric's couch, smiling right now.

Eric walked back in the room and tossed a bottled water to Anna, which she surprisingly caught very well. "Sober up. I need you fully aware tonight," he said as he crossed his arms and leaned back against his desk. Anna opened the bottle and took a few gulps, savoring the coolness of the water.

As she drank, Eric watched as her throat moved with each gulp, his own thirst unquenched. He had already fed enough for the time being, but when it came to Anna, enough was never enough. Her scent was just too delectable. He had enough restraint to control himself, but he wondered how she had survived so many nights without getting attacked by a vampire in the area. Maybe they didn't approach her because she had his scent on her, which was a wise choice. Or maybe they didn't approach because they were in the presence of Eric and didn't want to start any trouble. Either way, Eric knew that her good fortune wouldn't last. There would be a time when he's not around and vampires will take advantage of that and attack her.

"You know," Anna began as she recovered the water bottle, "You should be happy that I'm a bit tipsy right now. It means that you'll get better visions."

"How so?" Eric asked with narrowed eyes.

"I have two kinds of visions. The kinds that I try and see and the ones that just come on their own. When I have liquor in my system, it sort of numbs away the stray visions, but when I try to concentrate on one vision, it's clearer and more vivid. It's a lot better, but I don't particularly like getting drunk that much," she explained with a chuckle at the end.

"Are you always this vocal when you're drunk?" Eric questioned coyly.

"This isn't vocal. I'm usually more vocal when I'm sober. I'm a bit more sober now, thanks to the water, so I'll be able to focus a little bit better," Anna drawled, running a had through her hair before looking back towards Eric. "Why am I here tonight, anyway?"

Eric opened his mouth to explain, but looked towards the door of the office. Anna turned her head in confusion as well. "I might as well bring you outside and explain then have to repeat myself twice," he said, standing up and walking over towards the door. He opened it and stood outside, holding it open. "After you," he said to Anna with a smirk. She rolled her eyes and stood up, walking past him and outside into the main room. She paused when she saw that she was no longer alone. Not only was Long Shadow and Pam in the room, but three other people that she hadn't seen before. There was a blonde girl that was wearing a white dress and another man dressed in a dress shirt and pants. She could tell that the man was a vampire and that the girl wasn't. There was also a slightly overweight man with glasses sitting at one of the tables, trembling in what Anna could only assume was fear.

As Anna observed the other guests, they did the same to her, their eyes narrowing in confusion and curiosity.

"Eric, who is this?" the man asked.

"Bill, Sookie. I'd like you to meet Anastasia Coletti. Anastasia, this is Bill Compton and Sookie Stackhouse," Eric said, gesturing to the two.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Sookie said, walking closer to Anna and outstretching her hand. Anna gave her a smile and shook her hand back. She was ready to pull away, but Sookie hadn't released her hand yet. Anna's smile faded as she watched the blonde's face change from one of interest to confusion.

"I can't hear you," she stated out loud, and Anna's eyes narrowed.

"I didn't say anything," Anna said slowly.

"I can't hear her thoughts," she said, turning around to face the one that Eric had called Bill.

"Is that so?" Eric smirked. Sookie turned back around to face Anna and was just about to release her hand when Anna tightened her grip and began concentrating on the girl in front of her. She closed her eyes for a second, the only thing on her mind being Sookie Stackhouse.

"_Sometimes I wish I smoked, you know? So you could sneak outside without anybody knowing something's wrong with you," Sookie said as she used the bottom of her shoe to play with a cigarette butt that was lying on the ground._

"_I'm sorry about your cat," the brunette girl said as she took a seat next to the blonde. "I get why you're mad at him. I do. But he loves you. You still got people around you who love you. And all I can hope is that… maybe one day I can be counted in among those people."_

_Sookie looked at her for a bit before responding. "You are _way _too good for him, you know that, right?"_

"_Of course I know that. I'm not stupid."_

Anna reopened her eyes, looking straight at the girl before releasing her hand. "Huh. Well, you may not be able to read my mind, but I can see your future," Anna stated matter-of-factly before taking a seat at one of the nearest tables.

"You can see the future? Like a psychic?" Sookie asked, a bit excitedly.

"Eric, is this for real?" Bill asked.

"Wait, but how do we know if she's telling the truth?" Sookie asked.

"Do you work at Merlotte's?"

Sookie let out a small gasp. She was sure she hadn't met this girl before, and yet she was able to find out where she worked. "Yes."

"Is there a girl that works there with you? She's small, like you, and she has long brown hair and greenish/blue eyes?"

"… yes."

"Is she dating someone close to you? And do you think that she's too good for whoever this person is?"

"Yes."

"Is that proof enough for you?" Anna asked, resting her chin in her palm.

"That's incredible!" Sookie said excitedly.

"Where have you been hiding this one, Eric?" Bill asked.

"Far away where you couldn't reach her."

"Is she yours?"

Anna's brows raised at that. What does he mean by "Is she yours?"

"Why so interested? Is your telepath not enough to keep you satisfied? I must say, greediness is not becoming of you, Bill."

"I was just asking."

"Wonderful. Now that we're all acquainted with each other, can we get this moving before the sun comes up?" Pam asked quickly, a hand now resting on her hip.

"Very well," Eric said before he motioned for Sookie to take a seat. As she did, Anna watched as he started walking around the room, his hands buried in his pockets.

"Pam, Long Shadow and I are partners to this club, and we recently noticed that $60,000 has gone missing from our books. And Bruce," he said, slapping his hand down on the man with the glasses who looked like he was about to piss his pants, "is our accountant. Perhaps you can start by listening to him," he said, eyes looking towards Sookie, "And you," he said, eyes on Anna now, "can check and see if he ever does something like it in the near future."

"He's not saying anything," Sookie stated.

"Don't be coy," Eric replied immediately. "It's humbling enough to turn to a human for assistance. We know what you can do."

"And I know what you can do too. Why don't you just glamour him?"

"He probably did that already, but it didn't prove anything," Anna explained, looking away from Eric for a moment and looking towards Sookie. "That's why he wants us to help now. He's out of ideas and our… gifts are the only thing that'll help him find out. God know how much he loves to glamour people," Anna said, looking back at Eric towards the last part of her explanation, sending him a dirty look.

"Precisely," he said, staring back at Anna. "So, it would be a great favor to me," he said before looking away from Anna and back to Sookie, "and to Mr. Compton if you help us."

"If we find out who did it, then what?" Sookie asked.

"We'll turn that person over to the police and let the authorities handle it from there," Long Shadow replied.

Anna could hear Sookie saying something, but she wasn't entirely focused at the moment. She looked back at Eric, her teeth grinding together in anger. She knew that the end product of this whole situation was not going to involve the authorities. It was going to involve Eric using his power and status to do whatever he could to get the job done quick and easy, which meant that whoever is responsible would die.

"Stop lying. You know that the authorities aren't gonna have anything to do with this once you find the person responsible," Anna spoke calmly.

"I'll make you a deal," Sookie began, "If you promise to hand over the person who did this _to the police, _I'll agree to help you anytime you want."

Anna looked at her strangely. Why the hell would anyone make a deal like that with a vampire? With **Eric**?She was already caught in a familiar situation, and if she could find any way out of it, then she would in a heartbeat.

"I'm not sure if that's a fair deal. I mean, I may not need your assistance very often seeing as how I already have Anastasia's wonderful gift," Eric replied.

"Take the deal or ours is off."

"We have an arrangement. I'm pretty sure you and I both know that you can't call it off."

"Then I'll make some serious changes to our arrangement. Don't try to threaten or scare me, because I'll find a way to work around anything that you'll try and pull. Take the deal," Anna said, finality evident in her voice. She didn't approve of the girl's involvement in this, but she agreed to it, so it was her business.

Pam and Long Shadow weren't surprised to hear Anna speak like that to Eric, but Sookie and Bill definitely were. They both looked back and forth at the two for a while. Eric had gotten used to Anna's mannerisms, and he was actually anticipating her reaction to his claim. He knew she would say something brash concerning their agreement. Eric and Anna _both_ knew that there was no way out of their agreement. She knew that if she didn't agree then some harm would come to the ones that she loved, and Eric was glad that he had that over her as leverage. However, he already knew how difficult she could be, and if she was crossed, she would become increasingly difficult to work with. She had been manageable for the past couple of weeks, and he didn't want that to change anytime soon.

"Alright. Why not? I wouldn't want to lose my most prized possession, now would I?" he said, looking at Anna. She let out a scoff in response, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair. He gestured to the task at hand, and Anna watched as Sookie grabbed the hand of the large accountant. She watched as Sookie talked and tried to calm the man down, but he was still fidgety and nervous. Anna sighed and took another drink from her water bottle. She heard Sookie declare that it wasn't Bruce, and Long Shadow made a comment from where he stood behind the bar.

"Well that's why she's here. To completely clear his name," Eric stated, gesturing to Anna. She corked the water bottle cap back on, placed it on the table, stood up and walked behind Bruce. She lifted her hands and placed it on his shoulders, but he jumped up in surprise.

Anna jumped back a bit from the shock and sighed when he relaxed again in his seat. "Okay, Bruce," she began, scratching the side of her face with her index finger. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm actually trying to help you. However, I can't do that until you calm down. So… please calm down."

She bit the inside of her mouth and waited for him to relax before she slowly placed her hands back on his shoulders. She closed her eyes again and tried to concentrate on him. She focused on Fangtasia, Bruce, and money.

_Bruce sat in his little office in the back of Fangtasia, a pad on one side of him, and a calculator on the other. He would have preferred a computer to do all of his calculations, but Eric decided against it once he was hired. He would rather him do all the work by hand and make sure it was all correct before he gave him a computer to use. Bruce went through the numbers countless times. When he was sure it was all correct, he walked over to the computer that sat in the corner of the room, calculating it all once more there as well. It took him a little longer since he wasn't exactly used to using the computer, but he was satisfied to see that he got the same amount as he did before. He walked out of his office and into Eric's office. He knocked before he entered, and waited for the distinct "Come In" before he entered. He looked up from whatever he was doing and eyed Bruce._

"_How much?" he asked simply._

"_$134,000, Mr. Northman."_

"_Thank you. You're free to leave for the night."_

_Bruce gave a little nod/bow before closing the door and returning to his office for his things._

Anna reopened her eyes and removed her hands from Bruce's shoulders. "It's not him. He's fine."

Eric looked down at Bruce one last time before making a satisfied noise. "Bring the next one in."

* * *

Anna didn't think that she would be dealing with this many people tonight. She had already helped cleared seven names, and she could feel a headache starting to come on. She hadn't used her power this much in a long time, so she wasn't used to the pressure that came with it. She rubbed her temple with her hand, trying to ease the pain away a bit.

"This is the last of our humans," Anna heard Pam say as she walked inside with Ginger. Anna watched as she sat down, and Eric began speaking again.

"Ginger, these women have some questions for you. Now be a good girl and answer them, will you?

Aye aye, master," she replied.

"Ew," Anna muttered under her breath, causing a small chuckle from Eric. Sookie was about to take Ginger's hand, but Eric's voice stopped her.

"Not yet. Why don't you go first, Anastasia?"

Anna looked at him momentarily before shrugging a bit and moving behind Ginger. She placed her hands on her bony shoulders and closed her eyes, concentrating for the umpteenth time that night.

_Blackness was all that could be seen. There was a slight noise in the air, but it wasn't a distinctive noise. It almost sounded like a whistle being blown in the distance._

Anna opened her eyes, her brows immediately furrowing as she let go of Ginger's shoulders.

"What it is?" Eric asked immediately.

"I can't see anything with her. It's all blank. That's never happened to anyone before," she explained, rubbing her head. "Is there something wrong with her?"

"We glamour her a lot, if that's what you mean," Pam replied.

"That's probably why, then. Everything's always changing for her because you glamour her so much, so I can't tell what's gonna happen because her knowledge of what does happen always changes."

"Well then, I guess it's up to Miss Stackhouse to clear Ginger's name."

Sookie took this as her cue to begin, but Ginger pulled her hand away when Sookie reached for it. Pam had to hold her down for Sookie to read her mind. She found out that Ginger didn't steal the money, but someone that Ginger knew did. She pressed some more for the name, but was at a loss when she couldn't get one out of her head.

"It's blank, like, her memory's been erased."

"I don't know anything, I swear," Ginger pleaded.

"She's been glamoured," Pam announced, realization dawning on each of them.

"It's a vampire," Sookie said afterwards.

Anna didn't know what happened after that, but she found herself being pushed backwards onto the floor. The back of her head hit the ground, and she muttered a few cursed before rolling onto her side and clutching at her scalp. She could hear Ginger screaming, but that was the only thing that she could make out. When she was alright to move, she turned back around to see Bill stabbing Long Shadow in the back with a long piece of wood. She let out a gasp, watching as he began convulsing and spewing blood out of his mouth and onto Sookie, who was now laying on the table in front of him, screaming in terror.

Anna used her own foot to push herself back a bit, seeing as how the blood was splattering all over the place. She watched as Long Shadow stopped vomiting blood, but then turning into a bloody mess and splattering over the floor. Anna's mouth hung open and her eyes were wide in shock. The whole bar was quiet now, and the only thing that could be heard was Sookie's gasps. Ginger, who was standing far enough from the bloody mess, suddenly puked all over the floor, and Anna let out a groan and turned her face away in disgust.

"Humans," Eric said in a bored tone. "Honestly, Bill, I don't know what you see in them."

Anna let out a groan at his comment and stood up, holding onto the nearest chair to steady herself. Her head was pounding from the visions and from the alcohol, and the thump from Long Shadow's push only intensified the pain. She sat on the chair and held onto her head with both hands, rubbing her temple in tiny circles to try and ease the pain a bit.

"There's a bathroom that way. When you're ready," she heard Eric say.

She picked her head up slightly and watched as Bill helped Sookie off the table, but released her and allowed her to walk to the bathroom. Ginger got on her knees and began cleaning up what was left of Long Shadow off the floor. Anna watched as she lifted the pants he was wearing, and she could see his guts stretching. She had to look away, unable to stomach the picture. Ginger was still in shock, and she began muttering things about how she couldn't deal with vampires anymore, and how she was sorry she came to work there.

"When Ginger is finished, glamour her for me," Eric said to Pam.

"Are you sure? She's been glamoured one too many times already. Who knows how much of her is left?"

"It's either that or turn her. Do you want her?"

Anna started breathing heavily out of anger. How the hell could they be so nonchalant about the whole situation? Someone just died and they're talking as if they were discussing the weather or something they saw on TV. She tried to compose herself. She didn't want to blow up and dig a deeper hole for herself than she was already in.

Anna picked up her head fully this time and watched as Eric and Bill walked to the back of the bar and what she assumed was to his office. She shook her head and looked away from the two retreating backs.

"You've been awfully quiet for a while. You alright?" Pam asked, and Anna realized that she was talking to her.

"Yes, Pam, I'm just peachy. I watched a vampire get staked and basically decompose right in front of me. I'm fan-fucking tastic," Anna replied sarcastically.

"Don't get an attitude at me, honey. I'm not the one who staked him."

"Like it matters."

"It doesn't?"

No, it doesn't. Because if that Bill guy didn't kill him just now, you and Eric would have done it sooner or later."

"Well what do you expect? He committed a crime and he would have had to be punished for it, the same way humans are punished for their crimes."

"When humans steal, we go to jail. Punishment for us isn't death," Anna stated, getting a bit angry over this argument.

"Well we're not humans. We're vampires, and there's certain laws that we have to follow."

"Well laws and death shouldn't be so closely related," Anna finished, not wanting to continue this conversation and worsen her headache.

"You know, you'd be singing a completely different song if the situation was changed," Pam argued.

"What?"

"If vampires were endangering your life, wouldn't you want them dead to? You can say no all you want, but you know that you would. It would be the only way to know that you were completely safe and in no danger."

Anna stared back at her, and Pam made a face as if to say "Exactly" before she walked over to Ginger and hoisted her off of the ground. She pulled the still shaken woman to the back and out of sight.

Anna shook her head before slowly standing up and walking over to the bar. She grabbed her purse and jacket before she walked out of the club and to the back where her car was. She sat inside and closed the door, making sure all the doors were locked. She put on her seatbelt and pushed the key in the ignition, but didn't start the car. Shaking her head, she undid her seatbelt and placed her hands on the top of the steering wheel. She rested her forehead on her hands and tried to clear her head and calm herself down.

She never thought that in her entire life, she would experience what she did tonight. Long Shadow may not have been a close friend or anything, but he was _something _to her, and the fact that he was now dead was rubbing her the wrong way. He didn't need to die. He didn't have to. She wasn't an expert on the vampire community, but Anna was a human being, and she knew when things were morally wrong and unjust, and that's what this was.

She didn't realize it, but Anna dozed off for a little while. When she did come to, she rubbed her eyes and leaned her head back against the head rest. Her eyes closed again, desperately wanting to stay shut. But she had to drive home, so that would have to wait.

* * *

Eric sped to the back of Fangtasia shortly after Bill and Sookie left, and as he had suspected, Anna was still here. He watched as she leaned her head back on the seat, and he approached her car slowly. With her head back, he had a perfect view of her throat, and he couldn't help but think how easy it would be to bite her and get his fill.

He lifted his hand and used his knuckle to knock on the window, causing Anna to jump up in shock. She stared at him from outside before closing her eyes and letting out an extra loud groan.

"What do you want?" she asked as she looked back at him. He pointed to his ears, and Anna let out a scoff. "I know you can hear me!"

"Open the window," he said calmly, and Anna let out a frustrated sigh before she opened the door altogether. He stepped back and allowed it to open fully before standing in front of her. "Get out. Let me take you home."

"I'm pretty sure I can drive myself home, thanks," she replied quickly

"You're under the influence, disoriented, tired, and you can't focus correctly. I wouldn't be surprised if you got into a car accident before you even make it halfway."

"I'm fine."

"You're not. That's evidently clear."

"Then I'll take a cab home."

"And waste the money? That's stupid, if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you," she replied, crossing her arms. Eric tilted his head to look at her, studying her a bit before speaking again.

"Why exactly are you in a bad mood? Because Long Shadow was killed?"

"I didn't sign up for this shit, Eric. The deal was that I would help you. Not only do two other people know about my power, but I had to see a vampire die right in front of me. I'm sick of this bullshit that I have to deal with. My life was a lot easier when I didn't meet you. I wish I could go back in time and change the night when I walked into your bar. I don't like this life. It isn't supposed to be like this. My life isn't supposed to be this crazy, twisted story. I don't know why you keep trying to make my opinion about you change, because it won't ever change. You're a vampire. A powerful, strong vampire that uses his power to protect himself and only himself. And me? I'm just another useful toy that you can play with. You don't care about my safety or my well being. You just want to protect your investment." Anna was breathing heavily by the time she was done with her speech, and she looked away from him and down to the ground, waiting for him to say something.

"Yes, you are a very important investment, and yes I'm trying to protect that, but I'm also trying to keep you safe."

"No you're not," Anna muttered.

"Haven't you wondered why you haven't been attacked by any vampires in my area?" he asked, and she looked back up at him with pursed lips. "I already told you that your blood smells much different than any other human that I have ever encountered. I've never smelled another human's blood that smells or has smelled as good as yours. Vampires can smell you from a mile away. That is how strong your scent is. That is the only thing vampires focus on when they see you, and it is because of me that you haven't been attacked by any. Trust me, you would have been dead a long time ago if it wasn't for me. I may be protecting your power, but I have also been protecting you."

Anna didn't reply after that. She was tired of arguing and talking and she didn't want to keep going back and forth with him. Her head was already hurting, and it was only getting worse.

"Not only are you unfit to drive home yourself, but you are susceptible to a vampire attack, which is why I'm offering to drive you and why it would be in your best interest to take that offer."

She looked back up at him, trying to see if he was lying or not, but she couldn't tell. She bit her bottom lip, closed her eyes and let out a sigh before sliding out of the seat and standing on her feet outside. Eric stepped back and allowed her to walk around to the other side of the car, watching carefully as she slid into the passenger's seat. Eric slid in the driver's seat and closed the door just as she closed her own. He turned the car on and pulled out of the parking lot before speeding down the road.

Anna held onto the arm rest, gripping it as she used her other arm to reach for the seatbelt. Once it was secured, she used her other hand and held onto the other armrest. "Can you slow down a bit?" she asked nervously.

"Sit back and relax. You don't have to worry about us getting into a car accident," he said as he continued speeding. Anna let her head fall back and closed her eyes, _attempting _to relax. Eric took the chance to look back at her before he began speaking. "If you did discover that Long Shadow was the one that was stealing the money… would you have told me?"

Anna reopened her eyes and turned her head to look at Eric. "No. I honestly don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because…. I knew what you would do to him if I did, Eric. You'd torture him and kill him and I didn't want that."

"Why do you even care so much?" Eric asked, taking his eyes off the road and staring back at her.

"Because, Eric, he may not have been a close friend or even a friend, for that matter, but he was something to me and I didn't want to see him get hurt. And if that meant lying to you to save his ass, then that's what I would have done. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. It's not like it matters anyway, cause he's dead anyway. And I got to watch it all go down." She swallowed and shook her head a bit, watching him as he watched her. "Can you please pay attention to the road?" she pleaded after a while.

He gave her a one over before turning around and facing the road again. It was quiet for a moment, neither of them speaking. Anna looked out of her window and watched as the trees passed by her. She thought that they were getting close to where she lived, seeing as how Eric was driving like a madman.

"Well, Anastasia, you have proven yourself to be very honorable. However, I'm not entirely sure if it outweighs the fact that you are somewhat untrustworthy," Eric said after a while.

Anna rolled her eyes before she spoke again. "I'm not trying to prove anything to you, Eric. It's not like you've proven yourself to me," she retorted.

"I haven't killed you."

"Wow! Congratulations! Would you like a trophy for that?" she asked excitedly, and obviously sarcastically.

"I also haven't bitten you. Yet, at least."

"And you never will," she corrected.

"Oh, I'm sure I will."

"Don't hold your breath."

"You'll come around."

"Keep _day_dreaming," she finished before crossing her arms and sitting back in her seat.

"Why, aren't you feisty tonight," Eric smirked.

"Please don't start…"

"Did your rendezvous with your _shifter_ not go well?" he asked.

"Okay, that's like the fourth time you've called him that. Is that supposed to actually mean something or are you just trying to annoy me?"

"That's a question you should ask him, not me."

She opened her mouth to speak again, but decided against it and turned around to face the scenery again. They remained quiet for the rest of the ride, which lasted about ten more minutes with Eric's driving. As soon as they pulled into Anna's driveway and parked, she hurriedly reached for the keys, but Eric grabbed them and pulled it out before she could get them. He looked her up and down before smirking and getting out of the car. Anna let out a huff before she got out and slammed her door shut as well.

"Can I get my car keys?" she asked as she followed him up her walkway.

"I don't know," he said as he strolled to her front door, keys dangling from his fingers.

"They're my car keys, Eric," she said as she walked in front of him and stopped him from going any closer to her front door.

"I know, but it'll be much more fun to see you work for it," he smiled.

"Just give them to me," she said, holding out her hand.

"What do I get in return?"

"Give it to me!" she almost screamed.

"Well, that was sexy," Eric smirked, and Anna's face fell as she realized what he was talking about.

"Ugh, you're disgusting."

"I think that'll suffice for now. You've given me something to remember, at least," he said, and Anna rolled her eyes, clenching and unclenching her fist. Goodness, she wanted to slap him right now. He held the keys out for her to take, and just as she went to snatch it, he pulled them back and out of her grasp. "Now now, I know you could be nicer than that."

Her eyes widened at the statement, recalling their very first meeting. It had ended very similar to this, and he had said the exact same thing before. She relaxed and allowed him to hold the keys back out, and she took it from him slowly this time, snatching it at the very last moment.

"You're an ass."

"Good night to you too, darling," he smirked before he turned around and began walking down her path. "I look forward to out next meeting."

"I don't!" she exclaimed just as he sped off. Anna let out a long sigh and shook her head for the hundredth time that night, happy that she was finally at home and would be able to get some rest. God knows she needed a lot of it after tonight.

**AN: Okay, so, I had to break this into two chapters, because it ended up being 25 pages, which is the most I've ever written. So there's that. I'm gonna start actually getting into the seasons now, and blend Anna in the best as I can. Hope you guys don't get annoyed with that.**

**I'm also going to change the timeline a little bit. I know the first 3 seasons of True Blood basically took place within like, a month, but I'm going to stretch it out because it'll seem more realistic, in my opinion.**

**I hope this one was good for you guys. Sorry for the delay, but real life kind of got in the way. I'll try and update more frequently now. Rate and Review, please. I'd really like feedback to know if I'm doing something wrong or if there's something I need to work on. I would appreciate it a lot.**

**Sincerely,**

**PoisonLipz**

_**(P.S.: Did you guys catch tonight's episode? OMG it was so good!)**_


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